It just seems like a lot of taxpayer money…

Our View

It just seems like a lot of taxpayer money…

It has been just over a year ago when this so-called citizens pay panel that Arkansas voters approved when they voted for Amendment 94 to the state Constitution generously approved hefty salary increases to all our elected lawmakers, the governor, Supreme Court justices as well as other elected officials in Little Rock.

And now, we’re told, members of Arkansas’ citizens salary commission plans to meet next month to consider the possibility of granting cost-of-living raises to the state’s elected officials.

Wait just a minute here. Since when did we elected members of the Legislature with the promise of making these positions their primary source of income requiring cost-of-living raises?

Get this, the seven-member commission will meet May 18 in the state Capitol to hear from the state’s chief economic forecaster John Shelnutt.

Then, we’re told, the commission will graciously consider whether to hold another meeting to consider granting “some sort of cost-of-living adjustment” to the state’s elected officials.

So then, who the heck are these citizens who seem so generous with our tax dollars? The chairman of this group is Larry Ross of Little Rock. The others are Chuck Banks of Little Rock, Mitch Berry of Little Rock, Barbara Graves of Little Rock, Stuart Hill of Searcy, Brenda James of Little Rock and Stephen Tipton of Cabot. Isn’t it interesting to note that most of these people are from Little Rock?

Some people may be asking, what’s the beef? Well, just last March these sympathetic citizens approved raises that sent lawmakers’ pay from $15,869 to $39,500 a year, and increased pay for the speaker of the House and Senate president pro tempore from $17,771 to $45,000 year.

To be fair, we must point out that in exchange, lawmakers agreed to stop receiving up to $14,000 a year in reimbursements for certain office-related expenses.

But, in addition to their salaries, these lawmakers on average had previously received at least $30,000 a year for per diem, daily allowance for lodging, meals and incidentals, reimbursements and other expenses.

From information we received in January that listed legislative expenses and reimbursements in 2015 our very own Sen. Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis, not only received his raise but also received $23,241; Rep.

Deborah Ferguson, D-West Memphis, $24,897 and Rep. Milton Nicks, D-Marion, $22,522.

The logical question to be asked would be what do these 35 senators and 100 representatives do to earn this money? Well, lawmakers meet in regular sessions in odd-numbered years and fiscal sessions in evennumbered years. All types of legislation can be considered in regular sessions, but fiscal sessions are limited to budgetary matters and are therefore short. In between sessions, legislators attend interim committee meetings.

Let us also point out that lawmakers who are committee chairmen still are eligible for up to $3,600 a year in office-related expense reimbursements. Those who are committee vice chairmen are eligible for up to $2,400 a year, and subcommittee chairmen are eligible for up to $1,800 per year.

Lawmakers who live farther than 50 miles from the state Capitol each receive $150 in per-diem expenses for attending meetings in Little Rock. Mileage was reimbursed at a rate of 57.5 cents per mile, but that rate was cut to 54 cents per mile on Jan. 1 of this year.

So then, we ask the question, what do you think of all this? Text the Times and let us know your thoughts during this election year.