State Rep. Ty Masterson, R-Andover, is correct that serving in the Legislature can be a sacrifice. And that job duties can extend beyond the 90-day session. But his attempt to give lawmakers, particularly himself, a large pay raise is unlikely to fly.
Masterson wants to link legislative pay to the federal poverty guidelines, which are based on the number of people in a household, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. In Masterson’s case, there are eight people in his household, so his pay would be $34,570. Lawmakers currently are paid $84.80 per day when they are in session, plus $99 per day for expenses — or about $17,000 per session, plus extra money if they are in some leadership positions. That’s not a lot, but it’s not poverty wages.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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47 Comments
I’ll bet that Charlie Mahoney wouldn’t propose something like this. It’s too bad people didn’t vote for him. He’s such a nice young man. He rocks my socks.
They really do need more money. I stand by that. Maybe not to do it by how many family members they have, that’s kind of silly.
My wages aren’t based on how many are in my family.
Hey, maybe when this yahoo gets defeated in the next election, he can go to work for yahoo. Should get a big pay raise.
Pmom,It’s a 90 day session. If he doesn’t have another real job, with eight in the family, he’d have to be really stupid. O, wait, he’s a republican . . . never mind.
The $17,000 he’s currently making is based on how many days of work? And aren’t there generous Kansas Public Employee Retirement benefits associated with that job too?
Did he not understand that it was a “Public Service” job when he ran for election and that he was “Serving” his community?
Naw, No legislators should get more money what they’re doing! If they don’t like the pay, get out of the way and let somebody who’s more dedicated do it.
I disagree, there is a lot of money that they personally have to put out. Of course they probably have another job. But they don’t stop being legislators when the session ends.
The job should pay more. What they should do is scrap the expenses part and simply pay the members a straight $300 a day for 90 days only making it clear that they are expected to handle their business in 90 days, turn off the lights and come home.
“Naw, No legislators should get more money what they’re doing! If they don’t like the pay, get out of the way and let somebody who’s more dedicated do it.”
That is OK to say but in practice, you will not attract people to the job that have the intelligence to do the job correctly. It is not easy going over 500 page line items and adding budgets together. And it is a high pressure job. Your phone rings constantly. It takes a person of intelligence and education to do the job right and most of them are not going to serve if they are getting compensated less than a Cessna worker makes in a day. Even at a higher wage, this would still be service because most of the members lose money when they serve. Business leaders, doctors and lawyers all make more when the legislature is not in session.
What would be nice to do, if it was legal (which it is not), would be to CUT the pay of the Republicans by 50% and RAISE the pay of the Democrats by 50%. This would discourage more people from a life of Republicanism. We should also warn our children about Republicanism and how it will lead to addictions, mental illness, cancer and even suicide!
I might buy into a pay raise — but only if we (their employer) gets to approve them — then they have to convince us (based on performance) – not each other, that they deserve one — perhaps some merit to the idea that they be paid by the community they represent — then they almost have to pander to their constituents — not the lobbyists. If they are in it for the money — (unlike most military, fire — policeman, etc) — they are in the wrong profession. Do we let them vote for their own pay raises?
Echoing the above — it’s public service — not Goldman Sachs
Ask some of the moms / dads here — many probably have 2 jobs to keep ends meet — what’s the saying something like “What’s sauce (?) for the goose is sauce for the gander”
One thing we might consider- if our legislators were paid at least poverty-level wages, maybe they wouldn’t be as tempted by cash from special interests such as the gambling lobbies.
Kev
On the surface it seems like a good idea — but there are / were some good republicans, Ike, Dole, Kassebaum oh wait — the current generation didn’t learn to well from them — (I’d throw some Dems in that mix too)
…. maybe take a long hard look at exactly what they have accomplished, — not what they say they’ve accomplished, but what really has happened — Universities need 500 million for infrastructure repairs — why did that legislative oversight committee let that happen? Farmers out west suffering from a water shortage — what did they do to alleviate that? etc …..
I think our legislators should be paid quite a bit more. Maybe even $40,000 a session.
That would make the job a lot more desirable and we can actually have better qualified representatives than the crop we have now (notable exception of a few that are outstanding, such as Raj).
Because with the pay so low, it doesn’t serve the average person a livable wage for somebody who would like to represent their districts. So you get retires, real estate agents, business owners who no longer run their businesses (Les Donovan), religious activist, house wives that do not work (not trying to be sexist), and finally rural residing lawyers who don’t have enough work to do at their home and of course rich farmers who couldn’t change their own tractor oil.
These are the people who are our state legislators. Because to them, the pay isn’t anything. They don’t even need it or need to work full time like the rest of us hard working Kansans.
I would rather see a better caliber of representatives, more professional and knowledgeable and not single issue driven like the rest of them. Somebody like Raj Goyal is a perfect example.
Joe
Almost sounds like a good idea — but paying them more can also bring out more of incompetents who see it as a paycheck and a not public service —-
Maybe as a part of it — we’ll pay you more, but you can’t take anything from Lobbyists and a stronger, civilian monitoring of thier ethics — it’s amazing we let them write and administer their own ethics code — like giving the hen house keys to the fox ….
Ty Masterson proposes the old Communist platform, that is, “From each according to his ability … To each according to his need.”
I have noticed over the years the more a political position pays, the less independent intellectual leadership is given.
Best examples in Kansas are our Sedgwick County Commissioners. Its my understanding our three holdover Sedgwick county commissioners, Dave Unruh, Tom Winters and Tim Norton receive somewhere between 65,000 and $100,000 per year each PLUS snacks. Not bad for meeting once per week.
But do they represent their constituents, the residents of their districts, or do they represent the county manager and county administrative staff? Most people say they are puppets of the county administrator.
Yet they are among the highest paid elected politicians in the State of Kansas.
Have you ever heard of these fellows holding meetings individually at neutral locations, outside of the county courthouse, where they stand up before the public to take questions? If they do, you can bet they will be surrounded by paid support staff to shield them from embarrassing questions? Obviously, it won’t happen.
When the misguided spending of some $300,000,000.43 (and growing) for an unwanted, unneeded white elephant downtown ice hockey arena complete with 50 shiney new Zamboni’s should have been publicly discussed … these wannabee politicians HID OUT OF VIEW OF SEDGWICK COUNTY VOTERS AND CITIZENS SO THE ISSUES COULDN’T BE DISCUSSED.
Now they say “Sorry taxpayers, its too late to stop this gigantic waste of your hard-earned tax dollars.”
That is why I’m convinced the best pay for elected politicians is NO PAY. Otherwise under-employed candidates run for political positions purely for the pay and vote as a group so as to blend in.
SO, IN MY OPINION, PAY FOR LEGISLATORS AND COUNTY COMMISSIONERS SHOULD BE REDUCED BY 25% EACH YEAR.
The view from the west here…
Imagine if you cover a district the size of Virginia Beemer’s. Then think about a four hour drive each way each weekend to be in the district, which is HUGE, or to even spend a night at home.
Imagine living (actually just sleeping) alone in a hotel or sharing a cheap apartment with three other people.
I say keep the daily pay the same for all legislators, but raise the expense allowance. Really.
For us out here, the time spent on the road and trying to cover these huge districts causes, as joe points out, retired housewives and big assed farmers to hold all the offices.
The job is waaaaay different when you live at home, or at least only a couple of hours from home, and your district is one or two counties instead of half the state.
The population decline is not going to end unless changes are made, and, well, in western Kansas, the likely hood of that is about as great as the devil ice skating on Cedar Bluff.
Given that population slide, the districts out here are just going to get bigger, and more time consuming and costly to cover. No one is going to change that, so how about at least making more expense allowance for members west of Salina?
Raising the daily pay just makes that disparity larger. Raising the expense allowance, with appropriate rules and oversight, would encourage some young people here to run.
Oh, and I think we should just pay them for the days in the “regular” session. Any days over that should be unpaid.
Maybe that way they would hurry up and do less damage…
…and, as noted above, perhaps they would be less inclined to accept “perks” from those who want to influence their votes.
ksfg, I agree; raise the expense allowance to account for the additional expenses; keep the pay the same. I also like your idea of limiting pay to the “regular session”, but that could have some unintended consequences in times where there may exist legitimate reasons for going over 90 days (although I confess to being unable to create an appropriate hypothetical here)…
“I would rather see a better caliber of representatives, more professional and knowledgeable and not single issue driven like the rest of them. Somebody like Raj Goyal is a perfect example.”
Joe you got Raj with the current system. Why change now?
Vaughn, if they would quit screwing around with non issues like domestic partnership registries, the gay “menace”, gambling, etc. they might actually have time and energy to deal with real issues.
Like water. Like education. Like budgets and revenue that make sense. Like real economic development.
You know, just the little things they never get around to doing because they are always dancing like puppets at the end of some preacher’s string.
You know farmgirl, and I don’t intend to get into this with you today, there are those that think that our social issues are very important in the quality of life Kansas has to offer. When you talk to families that have moved back here from the coasts, you find they value a good place to raise their families as most important. So some of these social issues are things that have to be addressed.
That said, environmental issues are paramount, especially water issues. How do you think paying state reps more would address this issue. With computers and webx, meetings can be held with the attendees in many locations without having them setting in the same room. In this way we could have more of an opportunity to get input from interested parties without forcing them to travel to the far NE corner of the state.
There would be several advantages to this system. Maybe set up satelite offices in the harder to reach areas and have virtual meetings. We do need to join the 20th century and take advantage of all the technology available in order to control cost and give the greatest exposure to all state citizens.
“You know farmgirl, and I don’t intend to get into this with you today, there are those that think that our social issues are very important in the quality of life Kansas has to offer.”
So… heheheeh, how’s that working for kansas?
How many “families” are moving out compared to how many are moving in?
Pretty soon, you kansas taliban folks will have more contol over fewer and fewer people until you have complete control over…
…absolutely no one!
Germie, btw, I have NEVER met another poster who can mix up facts like you do. Others lie, but you just give confusion a whole new meaning.
I didnt say that paying more would get the water issue solved. WTF? I said the sessions could be finished on time if you kansas talibaners would let them work on the REAL issues in this state.
Not more of your dithering while kansas dies.
When your drinking water runs out and the schools close, and fewer people pay ever more taxes, I am sure you can take GREAT comfort in knowing that you kept those damn dirty gays in their place!
Jesus wept….
Who the hell is going to pay your KPERS benefits if you run off the young people in the state? Who will pay the taxes to repair your roads, empty your bedpan, fix your roads when the young people are gone?
You and yours? Pensioners on fixed income? Oh but please, make this state as unattractive to the young as possible. Maybe all those “families” from the coasts will move here and take care of you?
heheheheheheheheheh!
Farm girl I know several families that are moving to our area. Several small businesses are relocating also. They have found with the internet your physical address isn’t that important and the atmosphere they want to raise their families in is better here than where they are moving from. Maybe those who don’t agree with Kansas values are moving out and that could account for the shift in population. I really don’t know.
You are pretty liberal with your labels ‘taliban’. I make it a point not to call others names other than their own. After all your complaining I would think you would support this also.
What ever gave you the idea I draw a KPERS check. I have a very large family and was wise enough to get long term care when I was young enough to afford it and the premiums were out of sight. I am quite capable of caring for myself with my own resources, something some liberals on this site could benefit from learning.
You have noted in the past germie, what your previous employment has been. That makes you KPERS eligible.
And what is so shameful about drawing a pension from KPERS? It isnt shameful.
You always have those general examples, like “many families” “many small businesses” etc. Good footwork, cant dispute those untracable “facts”.
And yes, imposing your religious beliefs on others who do not share them is no different than the Taliban. Spin it however you want, a theocracy is a theocracy.
You are so far off the mark. You need to verify the facts before you post. GS and Rep make you look like a flaming liberal who only knows how to scream but can’t verify any facts. Nothing in my background would lead you or anyone else to think that I could draw a KPERS pension. Get a grip. Hate will do that to you. Make you cross eyed or is that looking at the end of your nose to long.
I love the way you and your accomplises bend facts to fit your stories and if you can’t do that just call others liars. That works every time.
hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee
Germie, you cant keep your facts straight and now you want to blame me?
Oh yeah, GS and Republican are model posters. hehehehehehheheeheh No haters there, uh-huh, no way!
Your support of them and your taliban tales tell us all we need to know about YOU!
Uh oh! Who wants to bet “she” is gonna pray for me now?
$17,000 per 90 days is a great wage imo.
That equates to $68,000 per year if they had to make attendance year around.
Eight in the house?Masterson, do you know what birth control is?Masterson, did you study anything at all about over population and the economic relationship of it?What about the other haft, does she work, does she bring in income?What is the excuse?You have one the best paying part-time jobs and you want more?
Maybe he can get his church to pony up and support him financially. You know, like philllllllll klein did?
Gotta keep all those little future tithers fed….
I suppose it’s why the KS Legislature usually sees older men and women who have established careers or businesses that run for office.
If Masterson didn’t know about the pay before (but I’m sure he did) he is realizing the reality of it now.
“so how about at least making more expense allowance for members west of Salina?”
You do have a valid point. The represenatives from places like Coolidge and Garden City have lots more ground to travel. So why not a mileage based bonus formula- like within 100 miles of Topeka, no extra pay, 100-200 $25 a day extra, 200-300 $50 a day extra and anything over 300 is $75 a day on top of a straight $300 a day salary plus each member should be given an extra landline at home and a cell phone to take calls from the people.
“$17,000 per 90 days is a great wage imo.
That equates to $68,000 per year if they had to make attendance year around.”
That might be good pay for an unskilled or semi skilled worker but the skilled trades, professionals and business leaders won’t work for that. Even an average attorney can make $100K and above. A family physician can make $200K. Most small business owners make at least that much. So who do you want to represent you in Topeka? I would rather have a person that knows how to read budgets, knows how to write legislation and knows how government works. I don’t want somebody that just sits there and votes the way somebody else tells them to vote or passes stuff without reading it first.
(In Masterson’s case, there are eight people in his household)
Maybe Masterson needs to learn the same lesson as George Bush needs – know when to pull out.
Oh and I also think state employees should ALL get raises at the same time. That would include legislators. But for now, I still think they need a pay raise.
lol Bob, good point. Isn’t that the republicon mantra, if you can’t afford them don’t have them?
What kind of guy is this Masterson dude? I’ve never heard of him before. Is he the kind of guy who expects his wife to breed for God, while he flies away to do ‘man’s work’ or is he actually a good guy?
Republican/good guy? If there is such a thing. lol.
Kev:”…you will not attract people to the job that have the intelligence to do the job correctly.”Exhibit A: House Speaker Melvin Neufeld.Exhibit B: House Appropriations Committee Chair Sharon Schwartz.Exhibit C: State Representative Ty MastersonExhibit D: State Representative Jason WatkinsExhbit E: Local Government Committee Chair Jene Vickery.Not one of these representatives has any mention of their educational background anywhere on their official or campaign information.Schwartz has a little on Skyways, but she is not a college graduate.And THESE are the people making decisions about the future of education???
“Germie, btw, I have NEVER met another poster who can mix up facts like you do. Others lie, but you just give confusion a whole new meaning.”
Posted by: ksfarmgrrl | April 21, 2007 at 12:39 PM
Farmie let me see if I can understand what you are saying. I moved to Kansas from NE Oklahoma and have said that frequently. I never worked for a state agency and because you tell me I am drawing a KPERS pension check – I am confused. I don’t know what is in the water in western Kansas but you should quit drinking so much. I’m no confused? Hardly.
In fact if you wanted to you could do back and see the name of the small town we lived in while our sons were in school before we moved to Wichita and started a small buisness. Maybe you are under to much stress. Maybe we should take it easier on you and your cronies. I don’t know but don’t call me or anyone else a liar when you have absolutely zilch to back it up.
ksgrm – maybe she IS stressed, I dunno, but she’s making all kinds of wild accusations lately, and I don’t see any proof behind any of them.
But to tell you that she KNOWS you qualify for KPERS – well, that’s in a whole new league, entirely.
Gee – what else do you not know about your own life?
lol
I thought I was pretty much in command but if there is a pension I don’t know about I probably should check into it. Can you work in Oklahoma and qualify for a state pension in Kansas. I’m sure she is out there as we speak searching the archives looking for the ‘evidence’.
$84.80 x 90 = $7632.00$99.00 x 90 = $8910.00
Total compensation for 90 day session = $16,542.00
- $2000.00 ($500 for apartment Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr)
- $123.5 (tolls for 13 round trips Wichita to Topeka)
- $1608.23 (3614 miles for 13 round trips x $0.445 IRS deduction rate for mileage)
I believe they pay income tax on the base pay, and not the money for expenses, but I haven’t looked it up.
$12810.27 actual pre-tax compensation after basic expenses ($142.34 / day…equivalent to $51,952.76 annually)
As the saying goes, “you get what you pay for”. People who work for select business that will give a leave of absence (USD 259 & some other large businesses), business people who don’t run day-to-day operations (Donovan), have a wife working at a big DC law firm (Goyle), and retirees (a bunch of ‘em) will continue to dominate the legislature.
If you think it’s so easy and so over paid then get off of your butts and run for office yourself.
That’s right you won’t! Why because it is a lot of work!
First you have to raise money to run a campaign. The average house of representative race will cost you around $25,000 to $35,000 (unless you are Raj Goyle and you get $80,000 plus from lobbyists in DC then you spend a lot more).
Second you have to spend 3 to 6 months walking door to door in your district.
Third you will then have to find the time to design your literature and yard signs.
Fourth you will spend a lot of time getting yard signs put up in your district.
Fifth you will be expected to appear at a lot of functions during the time you are campaigning. Some of these will be forums and some will be social gatherings so that people can meet you and learn about you and your positions on issues that concern them.
There are a lot of other things but this gives you an idea.
Then in between all of this you must continue to work at your job (unlike Raj Goyle). Take care of your family and attend family functions as well.
Should you win your campaign you will then spend the next two months meeting a lot of new people and attending functions that are important to your constituents and the issues you want to work on.
You will be doing all of this during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.
If you own your own business you will have to make arrangements for it to run while you are in Topeka or figure out how you are going to run it from Topeka.
If you live more than an hour away from home you will live in Topeka (in a hotel room or apartment for $600 a month and rent furniture) Monday thru Friday and come home on the weekends.
You will either have to leave sometime on Sunday to go back to Topeka or get up to leave very, very early on Monday morning.
You will do this for three months. Then while you are home on the weekend you will deal with issues from your constituents. If your family is lucky they will get to spend a little bit of time with you.
Once the session is over you will go back to your job or business and you will still have functions and events to attend that are expected of you as a legislator. Your constituents will still expect you to respond to their concerns and issues.
So all in all if you are willing to work hard to campaign (6 months) you will have a total have 12 months broken up over a two year period to handle legislative issues out side of the Topeka time and time spent with your job and family.
Let’s don’t forget the fact that you are now game to all of the media and you will have to hear and read some pretty ugly things about you. They may or may not be true but that does not make any difference. Your children and spouse will have deal with all of these things said about their mom or dad. Sounds really glamorous to be a legislator doesn’t it?
For some legislators this is their life in the legislature. For other’s it is not because they have decided to not work as hard as others or they are retired. Some actually make financial sacrifices to be a legislator because of their jobs or business.
You get what you pay for. I go back to what I first said that if you think it is so easy then get out there and run for office yourself. It is easy to bitch and moan but to actually have to put yourself in their shoes it is a different story.
I think our representatives certainly deserve to be reimbursed better than they are now. There are suggestions that they make $17,000 for the session, but most of that is reimbursement for out of pocket expenses that they have already paid. They really earn around $8000 for a difficult job that is obviously underappreciated. I don’t think that Ty Masterson was seriously trying to say that he should make more money due to the size of his family, but I wouldn’t mind if there was an incentive to younger people with families to consider running for office. I would like to have representation from people who have children in our public schools and are in the middle of a career. They will be more in touch with the needs of their constituents. Although everyone involved, including Rep. Masterson, knows that it is nearly impossible for a measure like this to pass, I would be very supportive of increasing reimbursement for those that are willing to take on a commitment that most of us would not be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to do ourselves.