Date: Fri 24-Jan-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: CAROLK

Quick Words:

Collins-column-Salaries

Full Text:

(COMMENTARY) RAISE THEIR SALARIES, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!

Old King Cole was paid a lot,

Whether he ruled well, or not;

It's always best to pay the king,

To cut down on the pilfering.

Let's call a momentary truce. This column often hammers away at the governor,

the General Assembly, the attorney general, the treasurer, and other state

officials. That's a columnist's job, whomping important people who otherwise

have the resources to fool you into thinking they're doing the right thing.

But there is one issue where we ought to lay down our word processors and join

hands. That's salaries. Connecticut's public officials are grievously

underpaid. Sure, I know most of them work for the honor, the power, and the

ego, not for the money. I used to do it myself. But you still have to live. Do

we want to limit ourselves to candidates who are so crazed that normal life

holds no interest for them? Or who are so wealthy that governing is just

another volunteer job, or a chance to protect their wealth?

I think not. We'd like some more or less normal people to be able to run too.

Especially for the legislature. Raising the part-time legislative salary from

$16,000 to $23,000 won't open a floodgate of new candidates, but it ought to

attract a few. There may be parents for whom that margin will make child care

feasible. And others for whom it will be possible to get by with just one

part-time job.

The same principle holds for the higher offices. Who's likely to run for them

now? Governor Rowland was quietly making $300,000 a year advising defense

contractors when he ran. Presumably he'd laid a few pennies aside. Other

citizens, with more normal jobs, lack that opportunity. At only $78,000, you'd

think twice before giving up your old job to campaign for this one. It may not

even be enough to pay off your campaign debts. And having kids headed for

college could really scotch your ambitions. So let's pay the governor $130,000

as the Compensation Commission suggests. It will probably be a long wait until

the next raise.

The $60,000 for attorney general is ludicrous too. You'd hate to entrust your

personal affairs to a middle-aged attorney who would work for that. Almost all

of Dick Blumenthal's lawyers make more than he does.

Now clearly you don't run for these offices without an ulterior motive, like

saving the world. But there's more to it than that. There is no ignoring the

fundamental statement which low salaries make about how we value political

office. The cheaper we get, the cheaper the winner will be tempted to treat

the job. The cheaper we'll treat it too. It's hard to take seriously a

legislator who's paid a lot less than we are. It's also hard for state workers

to take seriously a department head who is paid less than they are. In

government, though, it happens all the time.

This is not to say we should pay the governor commensurate with those

corporate moguls who, like he, also administer $10 billion budgets and

supervise 40,000 workers. Not only can we not afford it, but most of them

aren't worth it either. They just have a good thing going.

But we should pay elected officials a salary commensurate with their

responsibilities in the government hierarchy. Their salaries should not be

subject to political games. They should ratchet up automatically with the

Consumer Price Index or some other industry standard. Then a review commission

could tinker with them every ten years, if needed.

Sensible salaries would also decrease the urge for office-holders to feather

their own nests. Just as they would increase the number of sincere politicians

who could reasonably aspire to higher office. Fair wages are a cheap price to

pay for removing salaries as a political issue, for inviting more candidates

into the field, and for removing the temptations which under compensation

spawns.

(Bill Collins, a former mayor of Norwalk, is a syndicated columnist.)