I wanna be an Indiana LEGISLATOR!!!!

[BiggJawn]

The Public Officer's Compensation Advisory Commission released a report saying that (financially strapped) Indiana needs to increase the pay of our state representatives from a paltry $11,600 a year to $30,015. (159%)
Sounds reasonable, right?
sure it does, until you realize the following:

Indiana's legislature is in session 61 days during "odd" years and only 30 days during "even" years.

The poor, starving folks get a per diem payment of $134 when in session, and $53 a day the rest of the year.

Under the present pay scheme, they got paid $33,375 for 30 day's "work" this year. Under the new scheme, that would climb to $51,790.

I'm a "public officer" (I work for a state university) I got a whomping TWO PERCENT this year, and that STILL didn't put me over $40,000!

The commission didn't have any ideas on how to pay for this. I guess the State can follow the lead of the cities and have the state troopers write more bullshit traffic tickets.

The late Harrison Ullman, editor of "NUVO" weekly, used to call our legislature "The World's Worst Legislature". This is a little insight into why.

[Snow]

1. Snort! Jawn, you oughta see the Nebraska legislature

if you think yours is bad. Good things about it are 1) only one chamber, so cheaper b) Sen. Ernie Chambers keeps 'em honest.

Indiana has improved, progress progresses. My mother lived in Indianapolis as a girl in the 1920's, at about 33rd and North Meridian. She remembers when the legislature would open every year, the legislators and friends would parade down Meridian to the statehouse in full Ku Klux Klan regalia. The Klan owned the state back then, and were proud of it.

[BiggJawn]

2. We have 2 chambers...

So it's twice the confusion, twice the expense. or as we ironically consider it, "double your pleasure, double your fun"...

I lived at 22nd and Talbott until 6 years ago...I'd sure like to have seen Klansmen go parading threough MY hood. Especailly after dark...:-)

If DC Stephenson hadn't been so smitten with Madge Oberholtzer, who knows? They might STILL be parading in their hoods. A lesson to ALL who think they're above the law, IMO...

[aikidoodler]

3. I lived next door.

Hey! We were neighbors!

I lived in the big Melrose Place Apt complex off 19th and Talbott.

[BiggJawn]

6. OHMG!

You know the green 2-story with the big side yard next door to the Black Curtain/21/Faces night club up at 22nd?

That was mine for about 2 years.

Melrose place is getting a face-lift, along with a lot of other places on Talbott...

[aikidoodler]

10. Sure...

I know the place. I lived in Herron/Morton off and on for over a decade. I was a student at the art school (seven years in their four-year program).

I've seen that they're working on Melrose (or "the Courtyard" as we always refered to it). It needed much more than a face-lift-- the buildings were collapsing under their own weight. It looks much improved. Probably couldn't afford to live there now if I wanted to.

[newyawker99]

13. Hi aikidoodler!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[politicat]

4. Jawn, you get what you pay for....

Hoosier here, too (though currently transplanted, I watch the papers because my great-grandfather - and the family farm - can't.). I want them paid well so they work well.

In Colorado, it's not quite possible to apply for food stamps on a legislator's pay, but it's close. (I think if a legislator has 5 kids and a stay at home partner, s/he could do it.) But even though they're only in session for 90 days out of the year, they're working year round, and a lot of them are small business owners or work for a company. It's a good way to lose a standard job. So I want ours paid well enough that they're not going to worry much about missing a mortgage payment because they're working for us. (I also want their office hours in the local district to be open to citizens, but that's another thing entirely.)

If it's any consolation - look at Texas. Then look at the fact that up until the 90s, a legislator COULD get food stamps and welfare on a legislator's salary. And look at the type of gummint they had. In those cases, the only people who bother to run are the ones who can afford it, and we don't need government by the rich and secure.

They're not us.

Politicat

[BiggJawn]

8. Well, they make only 5 kilobucks less than I do...

And I don't have a car dealership, farm, grocery store, huge pension from the bank, etc. to make up the slack like most of them do.

I really don't CARE if they're "worrying about missing a mortgage payment". In fact I wish they WOULD. Perhaps then they would have some empathy for what us peasants are going through every day.

I really don't have any sympathy for them. Not when the price of everything EXCEPT what I get for MY labour is skyrocketting.

[UrbScotty]

5. Your legislature beat the Michigan Legislature!

They got a 39% pay raise from the State Officers Compensation Commission in 2001.

Now, back then, the Legislature could, by a 2/3 vote, reject pay raises. The State House voted to do so by a 100-6 vote. The Republican State Senate Majority Leader, however, didn't bring the measure up to a vote in the Senate; thus, the pay hike took effect.

Tthe state Constitution has since been amended, and now legislators must approve pay hikes.

[AP]

7. They need to work more AND get paid more

[Terran]

9. Damn! I thought Missouri's was bad

They meet each year for about five months, and manage to get very little of any importance done. Don't know what the current per diem is, but I think it's around $65, and they only get it while in session. Why in hell would your legislators get a per diem when they're not even meeting?? And how to they get anything done a 60-day session, much less 30?

Coming from California, I was used to a full-time, highly activist Legislature, so Missouri's was a shock. Yours has my jaw on the floor, man.

[BiggJawn]

11. "And how to they get anything done a 60-day session..."

They don't. And even if they have to go into "Special Session", it's usually because somebody is holding up passage of the budget over a "10 Commandments" bill or similar crap.

2 years ago, they made it a CRIME punishable by $10,000 fine to throw a lit cigarette from a moving vehicle. Why? Was a forest fire started by such an act? Did the woods in the southern part of the state burn to the ground?

No, it was because a Lawmaker got a hole burned in the back seat of his Caddy from a flipped butt on the road.

Kill somebody while drunk on the road, get a $2,500 fine and MAYBE 6 months. flip a butt, lose $10,000....This is the calbre of Law we get in Indiana. I seriously doubt raising the rate of compensation will raise the living standards in this state.

Remember, they're "The World's Worst Legislature". IMO, they're not even worth the $11,600 they get now.

[Jokerman]

12. The House Of Bubbas

Just warms my heart to see my old buddy Harrison Ullman quoted anywhere.

[BiggJawn]

14. I miss him.

Last time I saw an issue of "NUVO", it was all "Bar Beat", Clubber news and 1-800-JAC-KOFF ads...

They did an "expose" of IndyGO, the MT system, but it was weak.