Alabama Legislative Compensation Amendment, Amendment 8 (2012)

While there are eleven amendments on the ballot for the upcoming General Election to be held in Alabama on November 6, there are two I am currently interested in.  These two amendments are very important to our state and need to be studied and review by every person going to the polls to vote.  In this blog, and upcoming blogs related to these two amendments be warned, be educated and go vote the way you see you need to vote. 

Today, look at Amendment 8, the Alabama Legislative Compensation Amendment, Amendment 8 (2012):

An overview

The Alabama Legislative Compensation Amendment, also known as Amendment 8, is on the November 2012 ballot in the state of Alabama as a legislatively-referred constitutional amendment. The measure would provide that the compensation paid to legislators would not increase during term of office. The measure would also establish the basic compensation of the Legislature at the median household income in the state and would require legislators to submit signed vouchers for reimbursement for expenses.  The formal title of the proposal is House Bill 276.

The ballot language that voters will see on the ballot reads as follows: “Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to repeal the existing provisions for legislative compensation and expenses and establish the basic compensation of the Legislature at the median household income in Alabama; to require legislators to submit signed vouchers for reimbursement for expenses; and to prohibit the Legislature from increasing the compensation or expenses payable to its members.” (Proposed by Act 2012-269)  You will then be asked to mark, “Yes” or “No.”

This bill is supported and was sponsored in legislative session was Mike Ball.  There is no defined opposition to the bill as yet identified.

Again, be aware that the path to the ballot action followed Article XVIII of the Alabama Constitution which says that it takes a three-fifths (60%) vote of the Alabama State Legislature to qualify an amendment for the ballot.

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php

Amendment 8 provides that the compensation paid to legislators do not increase during term of office.  This proposed amendment would make legislative pay relative to Alabama’s annual median household income. Furthermore, this amendment supports the idea of a modest and decent salary to support a Citizen Legislator.

http://ccofal.org/alabama/alabama-constitution.phtml

My Opinion

Do you remember March 20, 2007?  I do and will never forget that day.  It was the day that the majority of Senators of our state voted to increase their salaries by 62%.  Some would say that there was nothing wrong with this, but I say there is, and it is such a travesty, that it is engraved on my mind forever.

These Senators, many of them businessman or otherwise employed within the state government at the time, as part-time representatives of the people, increased their own pay without the voice of the people.  They voted and sent word to the State Comptroller that they were deserving of a raise that put their part-time pay as more than a full-time teacher.  Without warning to the ones who elected them to their high ranking position, they said that we were not paying them enough and they would take care of the issue, vote a raise and go back to doing very little work to earn that money.

Amazingly these public officials, employees of the people, told us that they deserved a raise and took care of the problem they perceived without our assistance.  Within days, the rest of our legislators, our House of Representatives signed on and they too were making more than teachers, firefighters, and law enforcement officers.  The working man in the state was outraged; and rightly so!

This amendment, which will appear on the ballot November 6, is a way to make this not happen again.  They will not have the right to give themselves a raise and they will have to be accountable for the expenses as a legislator of the state.  The yearly income will be the median income of our state.  While I have strong feelings about the fact these part-time employees of our state will be making as much, or more than the full-time workers in our state government, this bill gives guidance and instruction of the people to their tendency to act as Statesman at in issues which they have not right to act.

More to come!