State elected officials were awarded substantial pay increases yesterday by the Washington Citizens' Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials.
Mrs. Gregoire's salary goes up from $150,995 to $163,618 this September and to $166,891 in September 2008. With any luck, she'll enjoy the latter pay grade for only a few months.
Personally, I think that an elected official should receive a pay increase only if they keep their campaign promises, such as "not raising taxes" or "changing the culture of Olympia", etc.
BTW -- several Democrat legislators testified for pay raises earlier this year. Republican legislators did not.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 16, 2007 04:22 PM | Email ThisWe are continually being tapped by her for more and more, and I consider this a massive slap in the people of this states face.
Enjoy your newfound increase Gregoire, I'm sure it will more than cover the extra taxes you have passed onto the people of this state, of whom most by the way have never seen this % of increase in their wage.
Yet once again an unreal waste of our taxpayer resources.
How about that Giffy. Now it will not be a big shock when she does move to private sector
Posted by: chris on May 16, 2007 09:33 PMIt would reduce the size of government quickly if the cash cow was sacrificed.
Posted by: Jeff B. on May 16, 2007 10:15 PMhey Stefan did ya see this one :D
I love it so much that I'll share it with you! ;)
Posted by: dcat on May 16, 2007 10:30 PMi don't mind paying for results and talent, if i'm getting something more in return. wait--maybe we WILL receive better diversity consultants/bureaucrats and efficient admin. of our benefit dollars paid to illegal aliens.
mute R's haven't noticed the 'kick me' sign on their backs for a long time.
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on May 17, 2007 06:14 AMGenerally this equates somewhere in the 30-35% Range for benefits like FICA, Retirement, Medical, Dental, Vision, Workers Comp., UC etc.
Paid time-off (Vacation + Sick Leave) is approx. 15%. NOTE: If anyone thinks paid time-off has no value, then they ought to forfeit it!
For folks that are self-employed, we understand the huge value of Benefits & Paid time-off.
Therefore, Gregoire will not be paid $166,891 in Sept. '08..............
It's more like $166,891 + 83,446==$250,337!!!
Plus all the taxpayer paid perks of office she can grab...like the mansion, car, travel & entertainment etc. etc.
NEVER just discuss salaries. It minimizes the true cost to taxpayers.
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on May 17, 2007 06:14 AMTo keep things in perspective, I know mortgage people who make more than Gregoire- even with bennies thrown in. Heck, when I was self-employed and working hard, I made that 15 years ago.
Posted by: swatter on May 17, 2007 07:13 AMStefan and Michelle, I kind of walked into that one. :) But I think we can agree that attracting qualified people to serve in government is important and qualified people tend to make money. They also tend to enlarge there lifestyle to meet there income. Unless they are super wealthy, this means mortgages, expensive schools, etc. I would venture that even with a salary of 166k, many would have to dip into savings or cut back. At the very least they are giving up a fair amount of money.
W's stench will last many moons longer than that, sonny.
Posted by: Abdul on May 17, 2007 09:39 AMThis is government at its worst.
Posted by: Paddy on May 17, 2007 11:48 AMWould you rather they set their own salaries like they used to? Didn't think so.
You can get all mad at Chrissy and the rest. And you can even point out that Democrats testified in favor. Just don't go back and look at testimony in prior years or else you'll find a Republican Senator's spouse in tears complaining that her part-time legislator husband wasn't making enough money.
And to those who think this is the result of years and years of D control? OK. Who was in control in the mid-90s in the Legislature? And how do you account for the majority of the Commission membership that's selected in this manner?
Nine members are randomly selected by the Secretary of State from the rolls of registered voters, one from each Congressional District.
Are there reasons to loathe the things 'Chris' does? Yep. The Legislature? Yep. But this ain't it folks, and you're making yourselves look bad by going off the rails on this.
Don't like it? Take it up with the Commission.
http://www.salaries.wa.gov/commissioners.htm
however, the public realm is an entity unto itself. no ofsetting competitors. we can't have all public servants earn sport star salaries & government grow exponentially, nor pay paltry to attract good talent. it's a balance.
i think the public resents someone becoming wealthy on their collective (tax-forced) dime, thus the differential salaries.
an aside--i always marvel at college tuition hikes--at all times far outpacing the local COLA rate. no one seems to bother nor ask why.
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on May 19, 2007 12:46 PM