Coffee tomorrow – 7:30!

I was out tooling around the local blog scene when I ran into this post over on Too Conservative.  It mentions this bill from the House of Delegates in lovely Richmond.  The bill is the model of simplicity, which I appreciate.  No burying the intent of the bill deep down in subpart “b” of chapter “s” here.  The bill simply says that if the General Assembly enacts a pay raise for state staff that members of the GA get the same raise.  No extra votes required.  Interestingly, every member of the House of Delegates voted for this thing….safety in numbers?

This may not seem like a big deal but, here in Manassas, if the Council wants a raise we have to make a motion and approve it seperately.  There is no automatic increase.  The GA should be doing the same thing.  Automatic raises doesn’t seem so conservative to me.

Pay and politicians has always been a bit of a sticky wicket, at least for me.  Frankly, I’ve seriously considered putting Council salaries on the “open items” list this year and may do just that.  The argument for pay has normally been along the lines of “it’s a stipend” or “it should pay something” or “only rich people will do it”.  I’m not so sure I agree.  I don’t know that having folks make a career in politics is the best thing.  Our current results certainly aren’t that promising…Certainly elected folks who incur expenses in the course of their duties should be reimbursed but a paycheck?  Dunno.

Coffee Friday!