Frankly I am sick and tired of government employees receiving large pay increases while us subjects receive mere pittance of a raise or nothing at all. Our military receives very little, Social Security recipients receives very little increases. It's time to go back to the idea that government employees are not in it to become rich, they are in it to serve "We the People".
I’ll preface with I’m undecided on this, have historically been adamantly opposed, but starting to see valid points on both sides, and starting to migrate some. .
One perspective I recently learned of from discussing the issue with a conservative tax watchdog group in Oregon - while helping my parents research Oregon’s recent ballot initiative to institute an independent “compensation committee” - was that their republican party was having a hard time recruiting conservative candidates because some of the good prospective candidates had jobs, farms, ranches that were difficult and costly for them to leave for several months, and for some that were serving they were getting behind financially. I don’t know if similar issues may be in play here, but seems plausible and I’d prefer our pool of strong conservative legislators not be constrained or skewed…and we need more truly conservative legislators in touch with average Idahoans to make a meaningful dent in our rapidly increasing state government and many other issues. One example offered by the tax watchdog group was the number of attorneys serving in the legislature…partially a natural fit given the nature of legislation, but as a former partner in a financial services firm, I understand in some law firms it would be much easier for an attorney to take a leave to serve in the legislature than a [__fill in various occupations here —-]. I don’t want public servants getting wealthy from the government salaries and I also want a pool of bright, common sense hard-working people to be able to take the time to serve without financial hardship being a deterrent. I’ve been adamantly opposed to most raises in the past - I want to constrain government spending significantly - but we need a great pool of candidates to do it, which makes me lean a bit toward pegging to an Idaho wage index to make sure the natural tension of salaries is reasonably balanced. Recognizably, retirees may have time, money (and hopefully wisdom to share!) but also don’t want to see significant disproportions. The struggle to recruit over there was new to me, so thought I’d share that perspective.
Frankly I am sick and tired of government employees receiving large pay increases while us subjects receive mere pittance of a raise or nothing at all. Our military receives very little, Social Security recipients receives very little increases. It's time to go back to the idea that government employees are not in it to become rich, they are in it to serve "We the People".
I’ll preface with I’m undecided on this, have historically been adamantly opposed, but starting to see valid points on both sides, and starting to migrate some. .
One perspective I recently learned of from discussing the issue with a conservative tax watchdog group in Oregon - while helping my parents research Oregon’s recent ballot initiative to institute an independent “compensation committee” - was that their republican party was having a hard time recruiting conservative candidates because some of the good prospective candidates had jobs, farms, ranches that were difficult and costly for them to leave for several months, and for some that were serving they were getting behind financially. I don’t know if similar issues may be in play here, but seems plausible and I’d prefer our pool of strong conservative legislators not be constrained or skewed…and we need more truly conservative legislators in touch with average Idahoans to make a meaningful dent in our rapidly increasing state government and many other issues. One example offered by the tax watchdog group was the number of attorneys serving in the legislature…partially a natural fit given the nature of legislation, but as a former partner in a financial services firm, I understand in some law firms it would be much easier for an attorney to take a leave to serve in the legislature than a [__fill in various occupations here —-]. I don’t want public servants getting wealthy from the government salaries and I also want a pool of bright, common sense hard-working people to be able to take the time to serve without financial hardship being a deterrent. I’ve been adamantly opposed to most raises in the past - I want to constrain government spending significantly - but we need a great pool of candidates to do it, which makes me lean a bit toward pegging to an Idaho wage index to make sure the natural tension of salaries is reasonably balanced. Recognizably, retirees may have time, money (and hopefully wisdom to share!) but also don’t want to see significant disproportions. The struggle to recruit over there was new to me, so thought I’d share that perspective.