Posted on 04/23/2009 9:21:57 AM PDT by stop_fascism
Pay hikes granted to more than 120 Assembly employees were rescinded Wednesday amid an uproar that threatened to affect balloting in next month's election.
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said she did not want the raises to be used as "some sort of club against the responsible, urgently needed ballot initiatives Californians will be voting on."
"In hindsight, this was really becoming a distraction," Bass said.
Voters will cast ballots May 19 on a handful of measures to help ease the state's fiscal mess, including Proposition 1A, which would extend new tax increases in return for a limit on state spending....
Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines supported Bass' decision to rescind the raises and said that in hindsight they were a mistake.
Californians are hurting, struggling to keep their homes and jobs, and the raises sent the wrong message, Villines said.
"I think it was bad timing, and I think we should as managers have made a better decision," Villines said. "We didn't, but we're fixing it today."
The Clovis Republican vowed to stand "in the trenches" with his aides by voluntarily cutting his own $133,639 salary by 5 percent – nearly $6,700.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
I think all Assemblymen should have aides. And if I could, I would personally give aides to all of them.
i.e. they couldn't slip it through like it's usually done.
They have a special election next month. They want 6 ballot measures tp finish off the CA economy once and for all. After that, I expect they will reinstate these pay raises.
Except for a few top folks, most aides make very, very little money. They work quite hard, in riduculously small, cramped offices under tons of pressure from their politico bosses.
It is true irony that they are freezing their salaries. They are the only ones in Sacto who do any real work.
Here is the monthly (even the Bee was embarrassed to print these as a yearly figures) pay for your poor little underpaid babies:
The following are among the highest-paid Assembly aides who received pay hikes. All but one of them received 5 percent salary increases. (Note: All figures are per month.)
DEMOCRATS
Arnold Sowell Previous: $14,222 New: $14,933 Change: $711
Richard Simpson Previous: $14,222 New: $14,933 Change: $711
Fredericka McGee Previous: $13,250 New: $13,913 Change: $663
James Wisley Previous: $12,376 New: $12,995 Change: $619
Pedro Reyes Previous: $12,367 New: $12,985 Change: $618
REPUBLICANS
Ivan Altamura Previous: $12,367 New: $13,480 Change: $1,113
Richard Mersereau Previous: $13,338 New: $14,005 Change:$667
Peter Schaafsma Previous: $13,427 New: $14,098 Change: $671
Richard Redmond Previous: $10,203 New: $10,713 Change: $510
Kevin Hanley Previous: $9,540 New: $10,017 Change: $477
If they can’t make ends meet on that, they could get a job in the private sector. Oh wait, they have decimated the private sector. There aren’t jobs there, any more.
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