Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Kempite Proposes An "Earn Your Wage, Legislative Merit Pay Initiative"
| At ther beginning of the new year, New Jersey Assemblyman Richard Merkt proposed to slash the salaries of New Jersey lawmakers by 10%. However, the Assemblyman is a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination and the proposal could be viewed as an election gimmick. Then again, everything that any lawmaker does can be seen as a election gimmick. In light of the recent pay raise of federal legislators, Merkt’s proposal is a noble one and worth looking at. So his point is well taken. Times are tough and our representatives should be willing to make sacrifices and at least pretend to be empathetic to the people whose lives they affect. Besides, lawmakers are partially responsible for any state’s economy including the one we are currently in here in Jersey, so they should be more directly effected. I say they are partly responsibly because not everything is their fault. Nature, world events and human stupidity outside of Trenton politics, all play a part. But our lawmakers are elected to both steer us and our state economy in the right direction and to help our state better cope with the situations that we are dealt. That being the case, it can easily be said that the current state legislature has not done a good job. New Jersey has led the way in economic trouble over the past few years and under the direction of Governor Jon Corzine, the state legislature has been ill equipped at handling the situation. In fact, together the Democrat controlled state legislature and Democrat Governor have made matters worse. Together they raised taxes, increased fees made it harder to do business in New Jersey. At the same time, they have also expanded opportunities for government corruption. One could argue that state Republicans bare no responsibility for this situation since they have not controled any branch of state government, for quite a few years now. I can agree with that but it still doesn’t get Republicans off the hook. Both parties have failed the people of New Jersey to one degree or another. Democrats have failed to do anything right and Republicans have failed at convincing anyone that they could do better. Given these circumstances, I have a more interesting proposal than Assemblyman Merkt’s. It is one that could also be applied to congress. How about we link legislative and executive government salaries to the economy and taxes of the state, or in the case of congress, the nation, that they run. Currently New Jersey State Assembly members and Senators make $49,000 a year. I say let us reduce those salaries to a base of $40.000 a year and then use the following standard. For every percent or portion of a percentage that any given legislature raises income and property taxes, their salaries are decreased by 2%. For every percentage or degree of a percentage that they decrease income and property taxes, their salaries can be raised by half of one percent. For every percent or portion of a percentage that they raise a sales or service tax, their salaries also decrease by that same percentage. Conversely, their salaries can be raised by half a percent for every full percent of a decrease in such taxes. For any new tax created, their salaries are reduced by 2% plus the equivalent percentage of that new tax. Every toll increase passed during any legislative session is matched by a reduction in legislative salaries that equals the percentage of that increase. And finally, legislative salaries are further reduced by the same number of percentage points that the state’s unemployment rate arrives at whenever it exceeds 4%. To make it fair. Newly elected legislators would not be held accountable for the taxes and economic situation that any previous legislative session, which they did not have a hand in, was responsible for, and so they would start with the base pay of 41K. Of course, such measures would not prevent rich people like Governor Jon Corzine from raising fees and taxes, misappropriating funds and offering sweet heart deals to sweethearts like his girlfriend Carla Katz who led the state;s largest union. After all, Corzine took a $400 million golden parachute from Wall Street and doesn’t even accept his salary for Governor but this system could help to make less well off lawmakers work a little harder to address our problems and to fight the wealthy Governor. Having their own pockets linked to what they pick out of ours could just help to make them finally work together for the benefit of themselves as well as us. Maybe such a pay scale system will help to really create a sense of bipartisanship? Perhaps if the lawmakers had their financial well being directly linked to the economies they are manipulating, maybe tax increases and increased fees for everything from landscaping to driving and joining a gym will be viewed as a last resort. Like it should be. Perhaps by immediately linking their own incomes directly to their own decisions, they may better empathize with the financial impact that theirdecisions bring to bare on those they are representing. You could say that it is not fair to those who vote against penalizing taxes or policies that drive businesses away and raise the unemployment in the nation or any one state. That might be so, but, those who simply voted against something are still culpable. They have more than a responsibility to vote against such measures. They have the responsibility of leadership and the responsibility of making their case and doing it so well that a preponderance of people in the state as well as the legislature are persuaded by their arguments. They must convince people why others are wrong and they are right. Failing to do so is a failure that they share in common with those who support regressive economic policies. So in New Jersey, Assemblyman Richard Merkt’s proposed 10% reduction in salary is nice. It is certainly going in a direction far better than the 2.8% pay increase that Congress is willing to take, at of all times, now. But the gesture Merkt is making could be made more meaningful and be more enduring. By linking legislative salaries to their actions, we are adding a new incentive to politics and a new level of innovation……..political merit pay. If you do a good job and keep a good economy going you get paid better. Is this crazy? It is no crazier than telling the CEO of any company that their salary or bonuses must be linked to merit. I am a proponent of merit pay. I think people should be encouraged to exceed expectations. I believe that one who does more and achieves more, should make more. I believe it should apply to lawmakers. That is why, if I seek the office of President on u4prez, I will be proposing the "Earn You Wage, Legislative Pay Initiative". It is time that we make lawmakers suffer the consequences of the laws and regulations they create and the economies that they manipulate. |
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