Archive » June 26, 2008

IT'S JUST MY OPINION

By Harris Sherline, Contributing Writer

Public service

Why are politicians so often referred to as being in “public service,” as if they are making some great sacrifice to work for the government?

We live in an era of the professional politician. “Public service” has become a career choice, and one that pays far better than most politicians could earn on their own, along with benefits and retirement plans that generally exceed anything the average taxpayer in the private sector receives.

From my perspective, the people I see in politics are those who, for the most part, make a career of being on a government payroll while the rest of the population pays the tab. They often talk about the financial and career sacrifices they make, yet the combination of their compensation and benefits are often better than those in business and industry, without being subjected to comparable market risks. And, it is not uncommon for them to become millionaires as a result of their “service.”

Most politicians probably could not, in fact, earn a better living in another field. Yet, they persist in giving themselves raises, or establishing systems that make their raises automatic, without having to declare themselves by voting on their own pay increases.

As far as I’m concerned, this is absolute nonsense. Perhaps the most offensive aspect is the fact that their compensation is not related in any way to performance. They get paid the same no matter how well or poorly they manage the “people’s business” they so often talk about.

In May, 1999, Gary Ruskin, Director of the Congressional Accountability Project, stated in testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives that a 1996 Roll Call study found that “all but six of the 73 newly elected House Members will receive large pay hikes when they take office, compared with their previous employment. . . During the last ten years, House Members gave themselves five pay raises, Senators six. Congressional salaries grew by $42,900 – more than $15,000 above inflation” - at the time.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show that in 2004 the annual median earnings (half above, half below) of four professions, teachers, engineers, lawyers and doctors, make the case very effectively: The estimated median income for elementary school teachers was about $58,000 a year; for engineers, it was between $44,000 and $90,000, depending on the specialty, that is, chemical, civil, electrical, etc.; for lawyers, approximately $97,000 was the number; and for doctors, it was estimated at about $135,000.

Contrasting these income figures with the $158,100 current annual compensation of rank and file members of the House and Senate at the time, it is clear that, by any standard, most politicians receive a pay raise when they are elected to Congress, even when compared with some of the higher paying professions. Rank and file members of Congress currently are paid $169,300 a year.

Most Californians are not aware that their legislators earn more than $116,000 a year, while in 2006 the average annual per capita income of the state’s residents was only about $36,800.

People’s Advocate, Inc. has reported that, “California legislators are now the highest paid state officials in America!” At the state level, our “public servants” receive an annual salary of $116,908 plus a tax free “per diem” allowance of $162 a day (about $35,000 a year), a free car that they are also permitted to use for personal purposes, plus a $400 monthly car allowance, plus insurance, plus other perks. In addition, they are allowed to earn outside income over and above their pay as legislators – as lawyers, doctors, accountants, insurance brokers, whatever.

Mark Twain said it best when he observed, “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”

Furthermore, government employees, at least in California, have established a seemingly foolproof system of guaranteeing regular increases in their salaries and benefits, by surveying their counterparts in other governmental entities, i.e., municipal, county, etc., then adjusting their own employee compensation programs accordingly. This process goes on continuously, constantly surveying and comparing themselves to other governmental entities and granting increases based on the results, which then become the basis for the other agencies to approve their own increases, in a never ending cycle of increasing compensation.

Life in the public sector is not necessarily always easy, it’s just not as underpaid as it is so often made out to be, and “public service” has really become just another a career path for the ambitious.

But, that’s just my opinion.