Proposition 1F. Elected Officials' Salaries. Prevents Pay Increases During Budget Deficit Years. - recommend No
Prop 1F would do exactly as it says, blocking pay increases for members of the legislature and other state officers in years when the state is running a deficit.
Sure, why not?
It's risible to think that this will "punish" our elected representatives into line and make the budgets work better, but it also won't significantly impact them. Or, to put it another way, any minority member (say) who was blocking passage of a budget is not going to suddenly think, "Shoot! What about my 1% cost-of-living pay increase? Forget that giant block of money I was trying to funnel into my district, I need my 1%!" and suddenly fall into line.
But if it makes you feel better, go ahead and vote for it. It won't make a difference.
I'll leave with a quote from Pete Stahl, who wrote the argument against Prop 1F:
And how good will you feel about freezing legislators' salaries when you know that their votes wouldn't change whether their salaries were frozen, reduced, or entirely eliminated? After all, they're clearly not in this for the money.
The current salary for nearly all legislators is $116,208. In most of California, this is solidly middle-class compensation. Many small business owners, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and managers make far more. You may earn more or you may earn less, but you've got to admit that our elected leaders aren't getting rich on their salaries. Now consider that we ask these officials to run an enterprise with annual revenues exceeding $100 billion. That’s roughly the income level of large corporations such as AT&T, Ford, and Hewlett-Packard, whose executives are paid millions of dollars. When you think about it in those terms, paying salaries such as $169,743 for a Treasurer and $133,639 for a Speaker of the Assembly is a terrific bargain.
Let's not make that discrepancy even worse just for an empty, childish, feel-good moment. Vote no on Proposition 1F.
Indeed.
You can get to the full text of the proposition and the legislative analysis here.