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Legislators' gall Our local legislators made no bones- and certainly no apologies- for voting themselves a 62 percent pay raise in the opening week of the regular legislative session. We admire their honesty but we deplore their greed and their arrogance. A modest raise- even one of 20- 25 percent- could have been justified. Legislative pay of $30,170 has not increased in 16 years. The job is considered part-time but legislators are quick to note that the job is far from part-time. The work is more than part-time, we agree, but most legislators also have full-time jobs that pay decent salaries. Modest wasn't in their vocabulary last week though when they gave themselves an $18,840 raise- boosting their pay to $49,250. That's awful! The entire Legislature- House and Senate- was party to the crime. The raise was apparently worked out in secret, backroom sessions out of the public's eye and sanctioned by the House and Senate leadership which quickly pushed it through on a mere voice vote from legislators. Two of our local legislators were big enough to acknowledge their vote for the raise, Rep. Marc Keahey and Sen. Pat Lindsey. We couldn't find hide nor hair of Rep. Thomas Jackson or Sen. Hank Sanders prior to writing this for a comment. Gov. Riley has said he will veto the raise but there are apparently enough votes to override him. Frankly, we aren't surprised at veteran legislators voting for the pay raise. We are, however, most disappointed in freshman Rep. Marc Keahey whose campaign we wholeheartedly supported last year. Rep. Keahey is a fresh face (indeed, he has the distinction of being the youngest legislator) who we had hoped would not be immediately tainted by the system. He hasn't served long enough to hardly know his way to Montgomery yet he already is an expert on how expensive it is to serve. He parroted the line of older legislators well in rationalizing his vote for the raise. Funny, we never heard Rep. Keahey utter a word about the pay not being good enough during last year's campaign. All we heard was how much he wanted to serve and represent southwest Alabama. We are disillusioned by our seasoned legislators as well as our newest one. We hope they do extraordinary work this session to justify their 62 percent raise. But we won't hold our breath waiting.
Make sure you see Hardy Jackson's quiz for legislators on the facing page. With the session starting out the way it has, legislators deserve close scrutiny.
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