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12/8/2006 Perks? We Have Bigger Fish To Fry By Jack Lohman The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com. Sen. Alberta Darling’s concern about legislators’ inappropriate sick leave costing taxpayers $3.2 million per year is understandable, but frankly, the state has incredibly bigger fiscal problems to worry about. I’m less concerned about the $1 per taxpayer we pay for legislator perks than I am the $1300 per taxpayer our politicians give away every year to special interests that fund their political campaigns. That $4 billion steals funds from other critically needed services like universal health care and education. They should be ashamed. I believe that legislators should be paid very well, much like I did my own employees when I owned a company. I’d double legislator’s salaries and give them a slate of benefits comparable to the outside world. But I’d eliminate their current “tips.” I’d require that working for the taxpayers be a full time job, that it be their only job with no conflicts of interest, and I’d eliminate moonlighting, free trips, free meals, free gifts, and the taking of money from private campaign contributors. And I’d make it worth their while in the process. In addition to the doubled salary I’d provide full public funding of campaigns so they would not have to spend their nights and weekends away from their families raising campaign funds. That $5 per taxpayer per year investment for campaign funding would be a bargain. In fact, compared to the $1300 it’s costing us today, it’d be a bargain at 200 times the price. My business sense tells me this would be a good deal. To pass constitutional muster we’d have to make it voluntary, as they did in Arizona and Maine, and I’d fund it with a surcharge on traffic fines so that those who don’t speed don’t contribute. That way, even out-of-towners who violated our traffic laws would help fund our elections. What’s not to like about that? If politicians are going to be beholden to their funders, I’d rather those funders be the taxpayers. Or in this case the speeders; and that would include me from time to time. I want our legislators working for us, not the lobbyists. So if Sen. Darling really wants to make a positive mark, she can sign on to the Risser-Pocan clean elections bill. And if the Democrats want to hold the senate and the Republicans don’t want to lose the assembly, they’ll put their heads together and pass ethics and campaign reform before the next election. As they say, we taxpayers are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it any more. -- Lohman is a retired business owner who lives in Colgate, and is the founder of ThrowTheRascalsOut.org and the author of the book “Politicians – Owned and Operated by Corporate America.” |
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