Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

I watched a wee bit of Arizona Capitol Television yesterday. I really have no excuse for this. I don’t have a head injury and the remote worked just fine. I don’t know what came over me.

I caught a bit of a hearing on SR 1003, which would reject recommendations from the Governor’s office on salaries for various state officials. The Governor has stated that she would rather see increases in pay for teachers and state employees before raises are given to judges and elected officials.

The claim was made during the hearing that we would get a higher quality of elected official if the pay was better. It is funny hearing our legislators claim this, or should I say, admitting this. I was waiting for someone to say, “Hey, you’ll never get good people to run at these salaries, I mean, look at us!”

They have a bit of a point there, the last time legislative salaries were raised was 1998, when voters approved an increase from $15,000 to $24,000. Although, the number one gripe I hear from possible legislative candidates usually regards the time taken away from home and buisiness in the trudge up to Phoenix.

The recommendations don’t actually do anything for legislative salaries; they increase the salaries of statewide officials, some county officials and judges.

One may remember Matt Salmon’s bizarre claim last year that the Republicans would have just had better gubernatorial candidates if the pay was just higher. What kept “top tier” candidates from jumping in the race was Napolitano’s inassailable poll numbers. It is hard to believe that another five or ten grand would have made more folks think it was worth a go. At the time, I noted in a bit of hyperbole that candidates for office in other countries make bigger sacrifices than a pay cut to a “paltry” $95,000. Heck, Napolitano herself could probably easily make double that money if she went back to Lewis and Roca. Somehow, she is willing to make this sacrifice, but the Republicans couldn’t find anyone to do it?

By the way, median household income for a family of three in Arizona is $51,575. This is a bit more than half of the current salary for the governor’s office. Although I think paying our governor more wouldn’t be a bad thing, given how much most people actually make in this state, it is hard to argue that the current pay is insultingly low.

The most stunning part of the hearing was when Jack Harper not only argued that the pay is too low for quality folks to run for office, but argued that it was…wait for it…

…a plot by Janet Napolitano.

Harper said that the Governor has tried to “devastate the pool of candidates for the other branches of government” by opposing pay raises for different offices including the legislature. Of course, the legislative pay increases (which again, aren’t in this package) get turned back at the ballot box as our state’s biennial ritual, so maybe he’s got a bone to pick with his own constituents. As far as the myriad of executive offices, the Republicans managed to recruit winning candidates for all but two of those offices. Which one does Harper think is a second-rater? We’d like to know.

Typical Harper though. I can understand his taking issue with the Governor on this one, but implying this as a plot of the governor to keep good people out of office is ridiculous. I guess it was just a matter of time before he found a way to imply that some Democrat somewhere is up to something. I’m just disappointed that he didn’t find a way to blame Harry Mitchell.