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8/28/2007
Is your legislator a moonlighter?
Apparently, some legislators are criticized for having jobs in the real world. I couldn't believe it.
An article in yesterday’s Janesville Gazette lamented that about half of the legislature is “pulling double shifts.” They actually have to rush home and hold down a second job!
I don’t mean to infer that the job of a Wisconsin legislator is an easy one. But when it comes to “real world” experience, far too few legislators are in touch with those of us working stiffs in the trenches.
According to a 2004 report from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX), The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) groups state legislatures into categories based on the average time spent on legislative activity, staff size and average salary. - “Professionalized legislatures (11 in 2003) require the most time of legislators, usually 80 to 100% of a full-time job. Staffs average 8.9 per member and pay averaging $68,599.
- “Citizen” legislatures (17) have legislators spending half-time or less doing legislative work, with pay averaging $15,984 and staffs, 1.2 per member.
- “Hybrid” legislatures (21) fall between the above two. Legislators work about 2/3 of a full-time job, have staffs averaging 3.1 per member and receive pay averaging $35,326.
With pay at $45,569 ($47,000 in 2007) plus per diems, and an average of 5.73 staff members per legislator (including legislative service agency employees employed by the legislature) in 2003, NCSL classified Wisconsin among only 11 states with “professionalized” legislatures.
In addition, WISTAX reports that Wisconsin is one of only 12 states that do not limit the length of legislative sessions – one more disincentive to folks with a “real job” running for the legislature.
WISTAX reports that the number of legislators reporting their occupation as “full-time legislator” reached 49% in 1993 and trailed off to under 40% in 2003. The Janesville Gazette article says today’s legislature “is about evenly split between so-called ‘full-time legislators’ and lawmakers who also work other jobs.”
The Gazette article profiles Rep. Mike Sheridan, a UAW Janesville union chapter president. “Though legislators such as Sheridan might sometimes face criticism from constituents, several officials and political experts agreed that allowing legislators to hold outside jobs opens government to more candidates and allows lawmakers to stay in touch with the ‘real world’ outside of politics.”
Well I should hope so. Notwithstanding the comparatively demanding structure of Wisconsin’s legislature, I want my representative to have his or her feet firmly planted in that real world. Hats off to those legislators who continue to know what it’s like to make payroll, pay the health insurance bills, and/or wrestle with the tax man.
COMMENTS
I prefer to think of these hard working stiffs as performing conflicts of interest, writing off per diems (while maybe not on internet voting) for a five minute vote and then, like Wieckert, going out and taking his bike for a spin... for the rest of the day I presume. (Wieckert boasts of saving gas while riding his bike to the statehouse.)
The fact that they may have been holding jobs as consultants and other activities that are bought and sold on name recognition as a state representative is not laudatory. It's disgrace.
Here again is a service job which has become professionalized. If they can be doing full time work outside the state house, they shouldn't be getting full time pay (plus per diems) for being in it.
Gee Lon, address the question. What is the value of the experience of a "real world" job to a legislator's decision-making? Note how to spell Rep. Wieckert's name - I corrected it for you. If you're going to criticize a guy, you best spell his name correctly. JE
Lon Ponschock (Tue Aug 28 13:19:16 2007)
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