Here's My thoughts on the Legislative Pay Raise

Legislators are hired and fired by the voters. The voters are the stockholders for this corporation we call West Virginia. It’s human nature for people to believe that they deserve a pay raise. We all believe that we deserve better pay and contrary to the occasional evidence otherwise, legislators are human too.

But as legislators, we must all resist the temptation to grant ourselves a pay raise when we clearly know that our employer, the West Virginia voters/taxpayers, were overwhelmingly in opposition. I voted against the pay raise because I try my best to reflect the will of the voters.

The majority of the legislature has clearly disregarded the views of the people, which happens frequently, and I would compare this action to taking money from a rather large petty cash drawer. The vote went like this in the House: Yea 62 (58-Dem 4-Rep) – Nay 36 (12-Dem 24Rep) – Not Voting 2 (2-Dem)

Here’s the ironic part, a similar bill was passed out of the Senate last year but was not taken up by the House. Why? The same legislators are still serving in their respective districts and it’s an election year. Normally, any other year this would not be a good combination for success. But this year’s different. There will be 45 house seats (38 Democrat, 7 Republican) who are unopposed during the general election in November and 10 delegates that won’t be returning next year.

That’s almost half! This lack of opposition frees up legislators to vote yes for the pay raise and not have to feel the wrath of the voters in their district. This same scenario is exactly why our state is rated last in many of the good economic categories. Will more Republicans run because of this pay raise? The answer is no. Why? I think most of the Republicans that I have served with, feel compelled to service because of a sense of duty, not the desire to make “serving” an occupation. That coupled with party registrations in many parts of the state make it nearly impossible to obtain a successful result.

Knowing this, it’s up to the board of directors (the voters) to decide whether or not they should fire those employees who have disregarded their wishes and hire/elect someone new. However, as I have described, many will not have that choice.

Some advocates argue that it was 1994 since the last pay raise. I’ll argue, “Is serving in the legislature an employment opportunity or an act of community service?”

When I first ran for office in 2002, I never checked to see what the legislative pay was until I had won the seat. The pay wasn’t important. I just knew that the Workers’ Comp system was so screwed up that I had to attempt to make a change. (Keep in mind that I could have bought for my employees health insurance with disability for less than what I was paying for Workers’ Comp. Given the choice, my employees would choose health insurance every time.)

HB4076 as originally introduced allowed for a pay increase for Senators only. An argument can be made that Senators actually represent a greater number of the citizens. A single member delegate district consists of approximately 18,000 people whereas a senate district has 6 times that amount but is shared between two senators. Should they be paid more? Again, sticking with my original statement, “It’s an act of community service.”

Will the argument of better pay induce a higher quality legislator? Maybe, but doubtful. In business, great employees are just that, and great employees move up the ladder quickly because of their personal commitment to excellence. Same goes for legislators, move up or move out. Apparently, I’m making a good argument for term limits also.

Many have said that the cost of this pay raise is minimal when compared to the overall budget, but that’s not the point. For comparison, the General Revenue Budget is $3.9 billion and the overall budget is $10.3 billion.

The following verbiage is taken directly from the Fiscal Note: “This bill as amended would increase the annual salary of each legislative member for $15,000 per year to $20,000 per year. Currently, the total annual salary for all Senate and House members is $2,010,000 (134 members x $15,000). The amendment would increase the total annual salary for all legislative members to $2,680,000 (134 members x $20,000). This is an increase of $670,000.”

What is not talked about and what was not included in the fiscal note is the pay raise received by the Speaker and Senate President which includes: the Basic Compensation of $20,000.00, Extra Compensation for 60-day Regular Session of $9,000.00, Extra Compensation for average 7-day extension of Regular Session of $ 1,050.00, 7 days Compensation for extension of Regular Session of $1,050.00, 30 days Compensation for Interim Committee meetings of $4,500.00, and Compensation for Attending to Legislative Business which also has unlimited days not in their Capitol office of up to $40,200.00 for a total possible pay of $75,800.00 excluding the $131.00 per day, per diem for expenses and unlimited mileage and travel reimbursements. That’s double what it has been in the past.

The amount of legislators who were allowed to receive duty days increased from 4 to 6 in both houses. They are still limited to 30 days at $150.00 per day, but are no longer required to be in their capitol office. Minority leaders are eligible to receive an increase of $25.00 to $50.00 during the regular session, interims and any special sessions. State public employees also received a $10.00 “Years of Service Annual Birthday Bonus” from $50.00 to $60.00. For example, a state employee with 20 years of service will receive an additional “Birthday Bonus” of $1,200.00 versus $1000.00.

The additional $16 per day, per diem amount for all legislators will go from $1,541,000.00 to $1,755,400.00 for a rough total increase of $214,400.00. When you add it all up, the true total cost of this pay increase is well over $1 million.

With no disrespect to my colleagues, but as I have said in the past, the only possible way I could support a legislative salary recalculation would be to adopt my position. It’s quite simple and I believe that the voters would also approve.

Individual legislators pay should be linked to an economic index such as a percentage of the average salary of the West Virginia worker. As worker pay goes up, so shall the legislators’. It’s called merit pay and that alone would do more to improve the plight of the average West Virginian.

It is my understanding that the West Virginia Constitution prohibits this method. However, if the legislature can circumvent the constitution to allow table games it certainly can do this. Better yet, make it a constitutional amendment and let the stockholders/voters decide.