Date: Fri 08-May-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-pay-raise-legislators

Full Text:

Ed Ink: A Raise For Legislators

Connecticut's robust economy has the money flowing. Salaries are rising,

consumers are spending, and business is good. Consequently, income and sales

tax revenues for the state are flowing as well, and with a burgeoning surplus

in state accounts, lawmakers are doing what they can to spread the wealth

around. They are even daring to send a little money in their own direction.

As they made last minute changes to the state budget before the current

session came to a close, including income tax rebates and gasoline tax cuts

designed to put money back in the pockets of state taxpayers, legislative

leaders were talking openly about raising the salaries of the lawmakers

themselves after the next election.

This is always a politically sensitive issue, but Connecticut's lawmakers have

not had a raise in more than a decade. Most members of the Connecticut General

Assembly make less than $17,000 a year for their service, whereas the

part-time legislators in other states are typically paid salaries in the

mid-$20K range. Last year, a special commission compared the salaries of

officials in Connecticut with those in other states and recommended that our

state lawmakers be paid $24,000 a year. The recommendation is sound.

We get as frustrated as anyone with all the political posturing and expediency

that plays out on the legislative stage in Hartford, but unless we are willing

to consign ourselves to perpetual representation by the retired and the

wealthy, we must attempt to fairly compensate legislators for the time they

take off from their regular jobs. We should make it possible for more people

of modest means to consider service in the General Assembly. In the long run,

it will be money well spent.