Lawmakers Need To Return Special Session Salaries.
Lawmakers need to return special session salaries
By the Daily News
More Kentucky lawmakers should follow the example of state Rep. Jim DeCesare.
The Bowling Green Republican showed a lot of character recently by donating $2,000 of his salary from the 2011 special legislative session to create a scholarship for a single mother enrolled in the nursing program at Western Kentucky University.
All lawmakers should consider his actions. For too many years, we have seen governors call lawmakers back into a special session to pass a budget or deal with other issues that should have been addressed during the regular session.
This year, Gov. Steve Beshear called lawmakers back to Frankfort for a special session to work on Medicaid issues after the House and Senate deadlocked.
Regardless of the issue, lawmakers have ample time during a regular session to pass a budget and deal with other issues such as Medicaid.
Areas of disagreement should be worked out before a special session begins, which raises the question as to why it couldn’t have been done sooner. Paying salaries under these circumstances rewards poor performance.
This is disappointing and we don’t believe lawmakers should be paid by the taxpayers for a special session when they could have got the business of the state completed during a regular session.
Three lawmakers have followed DeCesare’s lead by reimbursing the state treasury for wages they received during a recess in a special legislative session last month.
State Sens. Jack Westwood, R-Erlanger, and Bob Leeper, I-Paducah, returned their wages, as did state Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville. They should be commended as well.
DeCesare, who also plans to waive his pay and expenses for legislative work for the remainder of the year, also should be applauded for sponsoring legislation that would have banned lawmakers from being paid in a special session when they failed to pass a budget in the regular session. The legislation didn’t pass. Failure to pass this important legislation shows that many lawmakers are out of touch.
Passage might do wonders in terms of focusing their attention, and we would probably see far fewer special sessions.
DeCesare and a few of his colleagues are leading by example and other lawmakers should follow their lead and return or donate they were paid for a session that shouldn’t have been necessary.
By the Daily News
More Kentucky lawmakers should follow the example of state Rep. Jim DeCesare.
The Bowling Green Republican showed a lot of character recently by donating $2,000 of his salary from the 2011 special legislative session to create a scholarship for a single mother enrolled in the nursing program at Western Kentucky University.
All lawmakers should consider his actions. For too many years, we have seen governors call lawmakers back into a special session to pass a budget or deal with other issues that should have been addressed during the regular session.
This year, Gov. Steve Beshear called lawmakers back to Frankfort for a special session to work on Medicaid issues after the House and Senate deadlocked.
Regardless of the issue, lawmakers have ample time during a regular session to pass a budget and deal with other issues such as Medicaid.
Areas of disagreement should be worked out before a special session begins, which raises the question as to why it couldn’t have been done sooner. Paying salaries under these circumstances rewards poor performance.
This is disappointing and we don’t believe lawmakers should be paid by the taxpayers for a special session when they could have got the business of the state completed during a regular session.
Three lawmakers have followed DeCesare’s lead by reimbursing the state treasury for wages they received during a recess in a special legislative session last month.
State Sens. Jack Westwood, R-Erlanger, and Bob Leeper, I-Paducah, returned their wages, as did state Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville. They should be commended as well.
DeCesare, who also plans to waive his pay and expenses for legislative work for the remainder of the year, also should be applauded for sponsoring legislation that would have banned lawmakers from being paid in a special session when they failed to pass a budget in the regular session. The legislation didn’t pass. Failure to pass this important legislation shows that many lawmakers are out of touch.
Passage might do wonders in terms of focusing their attention, and we would probably see far fewer special sessions.
DeCesare and a few of his colleagues are leading by example and other lawmakers should follow their lead and return or donate they were paid for a session that shouldn’t have been necessary.
Labels: News reporting
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 8:30 PM
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