NTF Issue Paper

NTF Issue Paper. Legwatch37.doc. 4-06.

NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS FOR FREEDOM ISSUE PAPER:

NO PAY RAISES FOR STATE SENATORS.

BACKGROUND. This session, the Legislature passed LR 12CA, a constitutional amendment that would raise state senator annual pay from $12,000 to $21,000, a 75% pay hike! Not many Nebraskans win such a pay hike in 1 year. Liberal State Sen. Chris Beutler, a major player trying to terminate term limits, believed that the original increase amount of $24,000 was insufficient. Sen. Ernie Chambers declared that a needed pay raise would improve the dignity and stature of the legislature, to which he never has contributed. Sen. Don Pederson stated that this pay hike would give respect to the office. He earned an NTF rating of 47.25% in the 2004 Legislature and 35% in the 2005 session, hardly worthy of respect!

AMENDMENT 1. Senators passed LR 12CA by a 44-0 vote, more than the 40 votes necessary to place it on the May primary ballot. Because our state constitution sets pay, a constitutional amendment ratified by voters must pass.

It would raise state senator salaries to $21,000 annually, with yearly pay hikes equal to the rise in the Consumer Price Index not exceeding 4%.

AMENDMENT 1 SUPPORTERS. Key cheerleaders for this amendment include active leftwing and special interest groups. Read the following list: Common Cause, Communications Workers Alliance, Farmers Union, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union, League of NE Municipalities, League of Women Voters of NE, Lincoln Central Labor Union, NE Assoc. of Public Employees Local 6, NE Assoc. of School Boards, NE Appleseed Center for Law, NE Commission on the Status of Women, NE Democratic Party, NE State AFL-CIO, NE State Education Association, Nebraskans for Peace, Teamsters Local Union 554, United Steelworkers of America Local 286, and United Transportation Union. These organizations ingratiate themselves with senators, on whom they depend for generous legislative appropriations.

TALKING POINTS.

Incumbents know the salary when they run for the office, and many run again.
State senators should not vote to set their own salaries in this citizen legislature.
The proposed annual increase of 4% is higher than recent years annual inflation rates.
Automatic yearly salary increases without public input/hearings and legislator votes seem unrepresentative.
State senators receive an adequate per diem for expenses and mileage during sessions and payment for travel expenses when not in session. The average totaled $7,733 for food, housing like renting apartments in Lincoln, and travel expenses in 2004. Sen. Adrian Smith of Scottsbluff collected more in expenses than his salary in 2003, almost $13,840.
Many state senators earn income from their private sector jobs, e.g., attorneys, businessmen, while serving in the legislature.
Legislators complain that their service does not entitle them to health insurance or a pension. Most if not all senators have access to health insurance through their regular employment, spousal employment, or government care like Medicare. Part-time work does not merit a pension.
The average Nebraska yearly per capita income was $33,616 in 2005.1 Citizens should not pay $21,000 for only 60-90 days work.
South Dakota pays its state legislators only $12,000 per 2-yr. term plus $110 per diem. Wyoming pays legislators $125 per legislative day plus $80 per diem expenses. Calculating for a Unicameral 90-day session, this salary totals $11,250 annually. Kansas pays its legislators $78.75 per session day plus $85 per diem. Calculating again for our longer 90-day session, this salary equals about $7,087.2
Proponents argue that low salary makes senators more vulnerable to manipulation by special interest groups. Examining the legislation passed since the last pay raise, it is transparent that senators remain beholden to these groups.
Proponents allege that Nebraskans “get what we pay for” with low legislative salaries, that we deserve and must attract a better quality of senator. They used this same argument during the last pay hike campaign in 1988. Since that time, we have gotten the same High Taxers and Big Spenders as before. If we raise the salary again, we will get more of the same. During the 2006 session, senators killed 28 bills that would have lowered taxes but passed 7 bills that raised our taxes.
Proponents argue that low salaries will dissuade candidates from filing, yet the substantial number who filed for the 2006 races, a record number, demonstrates that candidates understand the current salary and per diems and wish to run regardless.
Nebraskans should encourage those motivated only by public service to run for legislature. We are supposed to have a citizen legislature, not one filled by career politicians.
Senators purposely placed the amendment on the primary ballot, knowing that fewer vote in primaries, thus increasing the opportunity for passage.
The CEO of the University of Nebraska Foundation and the chancellor of UN-Kearney lead the campaign to pass Amendment 1. Interesting that the university system is one of the leading causes of egregiously increased budget spending, and administrators continually whine for additional appropriations. This ploy seeks to ingratiate university administrations with state senators.

COUNTERPOINTS. Pay raise advocates whine that present salaries are insufficient for senators to support their families. They ignore that many state senators receive income from regular employment from which they take leaves of absence, have a working spouse, or support themselves on retirement income. Proponents declare that senator pay should appear commensurate with their responsibility. One only has to view profligate tax and spend voting records to dispense with this argument. Supporters comment that low pay is a financial obstacle for many considering running for legislature. A record number of candidates are running in the primary election because of term limits. Supporters derisively state that the current $12,000 is little higher than the minimum wage. They ignore that legislative service is a part-time job, not meant as career or permanent employment, though many liberal senators appear to seek such careers. Amendment 1 cheerleaders contend that NE state senators earn much below the annual salaries of legislators in adjacent states, that only 8 states pay legislators less than NE. According to the National Conference of State Legislators tabulation, legislator compensation in 2005, compared to NE, was lower in Wyoming and Kansas and the same in South Dakota. 16 states paid state legislators less or the same as NE. Citizen legislators should offer public service, even at financial sacrifice, for only a few years and then return home to live under the same laws they passed for others.

CONCLUSION. We must fight senator pay hikes, until they offer us relief from spiraling taxes and spending. From 2004 to 2005, Nebraska rose from 14^th to 8^th highest taxed state in the nation.1 Since 1988, NE per capita personal income has risen by almost 100%.2 Yet, since FY 1988-89, total state appropriations have more than tripled. Nebraska in 2004 ranked next to the highest among all adjacent states in appropriations per $1,000 of personal income and per capita. Legislative spending will rise about 14+% in the next biennium. If the legislature was a private business, it would have gone bankrupt years ago.

TAKE ACTION NOW. If this egregious pay raise passes at the May, 2006 polls, state senators will only have more incentive to continue taxing and spending like wastrels. To counter the propagandizing of voters by well-financed self-interested proponents, use the above talking points to do the following: 1) write editorials to your local newspaper; 2) call in to your local radio talk show; 3) show your friends and neighbors our 2005 NTF Legislative Voting Record and this issue paper or make copies. After they see how their senator and other state senators voted, they definitely will vote NO on pay hikes.

Research, analysis, and documentation for this issue paper done by NE Taxpayers for Freedom. This material copyrighted by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, with express prior permission granted for its use by Citizens for Local Control, Cherry County Taxpayers, Dawes County Taxpayers, and other groups in the Tax Freedom Network. 4-06. C

2 National Conference of State Legislators, 2005.

2 U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, April, 2005.