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The Case For A Full Time Professional Legislature
2 January 2008It is often the conservative line, that a part time legislature is limited in the damage it can do. I think not. Neglect causes damage and bad laws can be conceived and passed at 2 AM even by part timers.
Our legislators are paid around $30,000 a year. The legislature is supposed to be part time and at one time it just may have been. Whether or not it is part time does not stop them from making news year around.
The effect of $30,000 a year with an active legislative calendar is to limit those who serve to those who don’t need income from work. Or have jobs that clearly favor shall we say a “flexible work schedule”. I suspect our legislature is over represented by lawyers, real estate agents, insurance agents, retirees, non-working spouses or the wealthy.
A person such as myself with three children including one in college could not afford to “serve”. I suspect this non-living wage of $30,000 especially in this state of the highest taxation and near highest cost of living causes a not normal selection of candidates.
By not normal I mean in the statistical sense, they ain’t like most of us.
I wonder how many have actual real bruised knuckles manufacturing experience. Funny thing about business, it’s easy to mentally know how it’s done, but the actual practice of it somehow is more difficult.
I have wondered for a long time if the demise of our manufacturing status in the world was facilitated by an in-effectual legislature that allowed other states / countries to lure our businesses away due to a sheer lack of business savvy. I still remember the day I heard on the radio years ago a state legislator claiming that Connecticut’s future lies in the service sector, manufacturing is past. Wish I could remember his name.
Did our legacy as the Provision State slink away one factory at a time while our leaders debated grand social schemes? We had in this state what countries started 20 year plans to attain.
I suspect most of you are quite tired of what passes for state government here in the bluest of blue states. Ethics issues, conflicts of interest and questionable behavior have plagued our legislatures.
The failure to address the serious issues of our business competitiveness and taxation is glaring. The two are the same.
We have no job growth and our inner cities have some of the worse statistics in the country. Yet our leaders debate gay marriage, bottle bills, elephant hooks and pre-school for all. And are embroiled in seemingly endless ethics issues.
We pay endless amounts of money for education, but our children leave.
Our children leave.
We have the highest rate of 18 to 34 year olds leaving a home state. Not only does the south have most of our factories, I suspect they have a lot of our children.
I am tired of amateur hour. I am tired of hobbyists running my state.
The town planner in my town gets paid more than these guys, and guess what? He is great!
The clearest proof of what I say is in the slate of candidates running for office. The selection is a bit weak on experience that matters.
How to turn this around? Offer a serious salary, say $150,000 and up. The cost is cheap compared to the cost of lost opportunity. We have people proposing and approving Billion Dollar bills that are paid $30,000 a year! No business would EVER value positions of such financial importance at $30K/year.
We would see some serious candidates and some serious races. How long do you think the safe seats of the Connecticut legislature would be safe if they paid $150,000? (For all my fellow conservatives out there who think I have lost all my marbles, think about that last line. Think about it really hard and the beauty of this becomes clear.)
Time to bust up the party.
One Response to “The Case For A Full Time Professional Legislature”
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:19 am
I agree with this posting also. I would love to run but can not afford to. Change is essential if the state is going to survive.