Commentary; Posted: 2/21/07
What’s in a paycheck at the State Capitol?
T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol Reporter
The touchy issue of lawmaker pay crystallized last week by the actions of two local Republicans.
Sen. Ray Vandeveer, R-Forest Lake, and fellow conservative Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan, held a press conference to protest recent daily pay allowance increases that House and Senate in committee voted themselves.
Their gripe wasn’t about dollar amounts but process.
Vandeveer’s activism earned him the ire of Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, who castigated Vandeveer, a former member of The Other Body (country cousin House) and Senate freshman, at a hearing.
But afterward Vandeveer was smiling and chuckling, and why not? He has the full Senate vote on the allowance increase he sought.
Lawmaker pay is a thorny issue for a number of reasons.
Political philosophers while viewing legislatures as necessary also worried that a group of headstrong, sometime irrational people with the power to make law could quickly cause mischief.
So the idea has been to get these people to the capitol for a set time, have them do their work, send them home. Even today, conservatives in St. Paul recoil at the idea of a full-time legislature.
Lawmakers themselves use their own pay as political bludgeons — cut salaries during special session, some have cried.
Anyway, historic influences have worked to keep elected officials pay modest. So likely has the state constitution, which theoretically prohibits lawmakers from increasing their pay for the term they’re serving.
Some elective offices are part-time, and the pay rightfully reflects this. For instance, the mayor of Anoka makes about $8800 a year, the Forest Lake mayor about $2000 less. A Burnsville City Council member knocks down about $8400 a year, while back in Anoka they make about $7100 annually. Burnsville is more than three times the size of Anoka.
Pay becomes higher on the county level. An Anoka County commissioner is paid around $56,000 a year, while a Dakota County commissioner earns about $62,000. Other county commissioner pay: Houston, about $18,000, Isanti, about $25,500; Washington, about $50,000, Sherburne, about $35,000.
In St. Paul, lawmakers earn $31,141 a year, excluding benefits. The base pay hasn’t been increased in 10 years. A member of the House represents about 36,000 people: a senator twice the number.
Although a budget-setting legislative session is only supposed to last about five months, sessions can be intense with lawmakers spending long days in committee and on House and Senate floors. As in college, a session can include all-nighters.
Lawmakers all get the occasional nasty phone call, endure the biting campaign brochure, and have the privilege of watching cherished projects crash for reasons utterly beyond their control. Distance compounds difficulties for Greater Minnesota lawmakers.
Anyone who runs for the Legislature for the dough is probably making a dreadful mistake.
Indeed, at least one candidate for the Legislature made the decision to run not knowing the position even paid.
Who are these people in the Legislature? Of our 201 lawmakers, about 25 are attorneys with a handful more being teachers. Roughly a quarter are self-described business people, while about 20 list “legislator” as their occupation. About 20 lawmakers list themselves as retired.
There is an economist, an artist, a handful of nurses, a chemist, a pastor, a couple of writers, and nine lawmakers are engaged in agriculture. One is a pork producer, which brings to mind the squeal of the hog barn but also swill in the bonding bill. Most lawmakers seem middle class and live middle-class lives.
Some would serve for nothing, but most likely feel their time is worth something.
And they’re right.
Forest Lake Times
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