A pay cut tends to focus one’s attention on the task at hand.
Exhibit 1 is the Oklahoma Legislature. The lawmakers justifiably deserved the punitive 8.8% “haircut” the Legislative Compensation Board assessed two years ago, when the bickering lawmakers seemingly couldn’t even agree on what day of the week it was and did their utmost to wreck the Oklahoma economy with five consecutive years of state budget cuts that totaled more than $3 billion. “They’re not coming together and taking care of business. They need to be accountable,” said Wes Milbourn, then chairman of the Legislative Compensation Board. “And we need to make sure that we send the correct message ... to them about their performance, or lack of.”
So, the Compensation Board reduced legislative salaries by $3,379: from $38,400/ year to $35,021/year. Apparently that got the lawmakers’ attention, because subsequently they raised teacher salaries, boosted gross production taxes back to responsible levels, adopted criminal justice reforms intended to slow this state’s precipitous prison population growth, and earmarked an increase in motor fuel taxes for maintenance and repair of state highways and bridges. A newly constituted Legislative Compensation Board appointed by the Governor, the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore — voted 7-2 recently to boost the legislators’ base salary by 35.6%, to $47,500. This is the Legislature’s first pay raise in 20 years, since Fiscal Year 1999, and will take effect on Nov. 18, 2020.
The board also unanimously approved increases in the stipends paid to legislators who serve in leadership positions in the House and Senate. The stipend received by the House Speaker and Senate Pro Tem will increase to $17,932, and the stipends paid to other members of legislative leadership will increase to $12,364. Oklahoma legislators who live more than 50 miles from the State Capitol in Oklahoma City receive $166/day in per diem compensation for meals and lodging during regular and special legislative sessions; by law, per diem is paid for as many nights as there are legislative days in a week. Legislators who live more than 50 miles from the Capitol also receive mileage reimbursement of 58¢/mile for one round trip per week during legislative sessions and when attending interim studies at the Capitol during months when the Legislature is not in session. During the interim months, per diem compensation drops to $25.
If the legislative paycheck remained low, the job ultimately would have attracted primarily the wealthy or individuals at the end of their career. The pay raise almost certainly will benefit Oklahoma voters and taxpayers by attracting candidates for legislative offices in greater numbers and of higher caliber, perhaps more educators, more business owners/managers and more women. Members of the state House of Representatives serve two-year terms; the state Senate, four-year terms. All are limited to a maximum 12 years in the Legislature, in accordance with a constitutional amendment that voters statewide endorsed in 1990. The regular legislative session in Oklahoma spans four months: from the first of February to the last Friday in May. Contrary to popular belief, though, serving as a legislator in Oklahoma is not a seasonal sideline; it is a full-time job.
The 149 members of the Oklahoma Legislature address myriad subjects – legislators and their executive assistants routinely field questions about federal issues (such as Social Security and immigration) as well as state matters (such as income taxes, state highways and county roads, and public welfare benefits). But the legislators’ primary responsibility is preparation of a state budget – which climbed to $8.3 billion for Fiscal Year 2020. Oklahoma’s new base legislative pay will rank 15th highest in the nation when it goes into effect after the general election next year.
Colorado lawmakers receive $40,242, according to the Oklahoma’s Office of Management and Enterprise Services. Arkansas legislators are paid $40,188; Missouri legislators receive $35,915; Texas lawmakers receive $7,200 plus $190/day per- diem when their legislature is in session every other year; and Kansas’s 165 lawmakers, who meet annually, usually for 90 days, receive $88.66/ day in base salary ($7,979) plus $144/day ($12,960) per-diem, records indicate.
The highest-paid state legislators are in California, at $110,459/year, and in New York, at $110,000/year. At the other end of the scale, Wyoming legislators receive $150/day in salary while in session. Their legislature meets for approximately 20 days in even-numbered years for a budget session, and for no more than 40 days in a general session in other years. And New Mexico has a genuine “citizen legislature.” It has the nation’s only unpaid legislature, although their lawmakers do receive modest reimbursement for travel expenses plus meals and lodging while in session. Their legislature convenes for 30 days in even-numbered years and 60 days in odd-numbered years.
Because New Mexico’s 112 legislators draw no salary, they must hold down a full-time job somewhere, which often requires them to vote on legislation that potentially could benefit them directly. The daughter of a high school classmate serves in the New Mexico legislature. Service as a lawmaker in the “Land of Enchantment” imposes a financial hardship “unless a special interest group or an industry hires you as a ‘consultant’ or pays you a retainer,” she wrote. “I believe we would have better lawmaking with paid, year-round legislators.” You seek out a professional when you want your car fixed, a plumbing leak repaired or a hole in your roof patched. Likewise, you don’t want rank amateurs deciding how to spend several billion of your hard-earned state tax dollars. The new pay raise goes a long way toward ensuring that won’t happen.