Incompetent Leadership at Executive and Legislative Levels Prompt Infighting over Pay
The Oklahoma Legislative Compensation Board showed how bitter the tax fight has been this past few months after they voted Thursday to cut lawmakers' pay by 8.8 percent. The vote was four to three in favor of cutting legislative pay by 8.8% with some members voting no because they were in favor of deeper cuts to pay for state senators and representatives. The pay cuts will take effect after the next election in November 2018.
The Board placed blame on the legislature mainly because Governor Fallin appointed the majority of the board members. The stated goal was to bring legislature pay inline with nearby states, with Oklahoma being topped only by Arkansas. The base pay is now at $38,400 so the reduction will lower that base pay to around $35,021 per year plus any bonus for serving as leadership and per diem pay.
The savings will be around a half million per year, around one percent of the $50,000,000 spent annually on agency swag products (advertising items such as imprinted pens, coasters, clothing, awards, or like items). While a pay cut isn't a bad idea it pales in comparison to the savings that a working legislature would produce if Fallin and House/Senate leadership would encourage the cutting of waste and bloat.
Fallin of course vowed to veto any cost cutting measures in the special session, demanding a half billion in new taxes. As Fallin appointed five of the nine board members to the Speaker and Pro Tem's two members each, she had control over the majority of the votes and chose to punish the legislature to divert attention away from her leadership role in the budget crisis.
The Oklahoman published a quote from Speaker Charles McCall that showed the bitter infighting:
"After all the recent news about corruption, mismanagement and waste in our executive branch agencies, I feel confident that those discussions about lowering and capping pay for agency and cabinet appointments will be taking place when the Legislature convenes in February,"
Fallin claimed ignorance of the board's pay cut, another sign of either dishonesty or incompetence in leading state government. The fact is that a legislator's job pays well for most of those elected but the price on family and businesses owned by the legislators can be brutal. An honest legislator isn't going to attract the kind of campaign donations that House and Senate leadership teams gets, few are willing to pay for a legislator to do the right thing, many are willing to pay for special interest tax breaks or hobbling their competitors through new legislation.
