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February 13, 2012

Effort afoot to repeal legislators' 2007 pay hike

By David Palmer The Cullman Times

CULLMAN — State Sen. Paul Bussman (R-Cullman) is coming forward with a bill that proposes to repeal a 2007 pay raise for legislators and ultimately take the issue legislative compensation out of the hands of lawmakers.

The bill, if approved, would be proposed to voters as a constitutional amendment.

“I think there’s pretty good support for this,” Bussman said. “We’ll try to get it out of committee and then people can see who is supporting it and who is not.”

Bussman, when he was seeking the Senate seat, pledged to support a repeal of the pay raise, which was approved by a Legislature at the time that included a higher number of Democrats. The senator said he wants the state Personnel Board to have oversight concerning legislative compensation. The bill would grant the board that power and require publishing annual reports of legislative expenses paid to members.

“It’s a much fairer system of compensation because it gets the decision-making part concerning raises out of the hands of the legislature,” he said. “It goes back to the accountability issue where the public is concerned.”

On the House side, Rep. Jeremy Oden (R-Vinemont) said he is interested in the bill for the same reasons Bussman stated.

“I am aware of the bill and I like the idea of the compensation being decided by the Personnel Board. I still need to look over the details of the proposal, but it’s a good idea because it’s just not a good idea for legislators deciding their own compensation.”

Oden said another angle to consider in Bussman’s proposal is to move the issue of teachers’ pay to the Personnel Board so that it can be decided with fewer political motivations.

“I would like to see this for teachers because the decision on pay could be judged more fairly,” Oden said.



Highlights of the bill include:

* repeal of the 61 percent legislative pay raise in 2007.

* repeal of the automatic annual cost-of-living adjustment for legislators.

* repeal of all previously undocumented “expense allowances” for legislators.

* repeal of all other provisions of law relating to legislative compensation and expenses.

* prohibiting the legislature from voting to raise its own pay and expenses ever again.

* fixes compensation for legislators equal to the median household income, as ascertained and adjusted each year independently by the state Personnel Board.

Some of the accountability factors in the bill include:

* a requirement for legislators to support reimbursement requests with signed vouchers.

* approval of expense reimbursement by the presiding legislative officers before payments can be made.

* prohibiting reimbursement for mileage and other travel expenses incurred within the legislator’s home district.

* prohibiting per diem reimbursement for travel during the legislative session for legislators who live within 50 miles of the capital.



* David Palmer may be contacted at 256-734-2131, ext. 213 or dpalmer@cullmantimes.com.

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