Wednesday, January 31, 2007
More Than A Third of Legislators Heading To Super Bowl
At $600 a pop, a Super Bowl ticket and the associated travel cost for attending the game in Miami this weekend is beyond the financial reach of most Hoosiers. The several thousand-dollar trip is not beyond the reach of many Indiana lawmakers, however. More than fifty of the 150 members of the Indiana General Assembly plan to attend Sunday's game where the Colts will face off against the Bears. The Star reports that the House of Representatives has cancelled business for Monday, and according to Jim Shella, only the Senate's staffers will be working on Monday. Keep this in mind the next time you hear a legislator complaining that legislators are underpaid.
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The poorly-paid Indiana General Assembly has always been heavily populated by wealthy farmers and rich lawyers. Only one third of the legislators are going to Florida - the other 2/3rds are not interested or wealthy enough to go. The low pay penalizes citizen involvement. Only folk with peculiar jobs that can take off a month or two every year can be legislators.
It's obvious that many legislators can personally afford deluxe Super Bowl trips but I would prefer to see a system whereby more non-rich folk can participate more fully in the legislative process.
It's their own money. I can't quibble with it.
If it gets them out of town, they can't do any damage in the General Assembly.
Can we concoct enough scenarios and out-of-town parties to occupy these fools until Sine Die?
When I worked for the Illinois legislature back in the 1980s, a good friend of mine and long-time staffer there used to say at the end of each session: "The circus has folded up its tents and gone home for the year. The people of Illinois can breathe a little easier now." Observing first-hand what legislators are capable of doing, his expression always resonated with me.
I was thinking the exact same thing. How many complaints have we heard lately about pay??? Ugh! I know they are not getting paid that well for their legislative positions, but they pretty much all are independently wealthy. It makes a hard case to want to pay them more.
What I'd like to know is: Maybe the legislators had to buy their own tickets, but which lobbyists are paying for their hotels, airfare, and buying them $350 dinners, brunches and cocktails throughout the weekend in Miami?
Only Wilson would advocate that close to $40K/year is "poorly-paid." What a joke!
Republicans want to get rich using private companies to run government. Democrats want to get rich letting government run everything and just giving the powers that be huge wages and benefits. Count on Wilson to support wage increases for elected hacks.
As with the city cops, if our legislators don't like the pay...QUIT! The _knew_ the pay before taking the job, now that they have it they want more.
"I know they are not getting paid that well for their legislative positions, but they pretty much all are independently wealthy."
Sorry, but how are they not paid that well? On the low end, each one of them walks away with $30K/year during the short session. They complain about the fact that they work so many hours and such. So? Nine months of the year they really don't do that much. Everything that costs is covered for the most part. The jobs obviously do not require that much personal time when the session is ended. If this was true, a few IU profs, a few Ivy Tech employees, etc. could never hold those six figure jobs.
This means that anyone who does this job only could easily get a part-time job somewhere and bring in an extra $10-$15K to add to their $30K. Sorry, but $40K is not a bad income. If you just must make more, get another job. Don't demand I provide you with an elite lifestyle.
Democrats want to get rich letting government run everything and...
getting the contracts for sideline businesses (or is that "bidness" Monroe?) so these 'Rat bigwigs can line their pockets with looted booty from the taxpayers?
Actually, the House staff will be working on Monday.
Hope there are lots of Hoosiers and Colts fans at the game.
Go COLTS!
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