I have my doubts about this:
Indiana legislators make a base salary of $11,600, but when expense payments and per diems are figured in, no member makes less than $31,000, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. There has been no increase in base pay since 1985.
I believe that is much too low for the amount of work many of these people do.
And I think this is just flat-out wrong:
In the legislative culture, the myth is that the public will react negatively to any kind of pay increase. But we've seen these myths come crashing to the ground in recent years. Gov. Mitch Daniels got a food and beverage tax increase passed in seven of the eight doughnut counties around Indianapolis for the new Colts stadium. Conventional wisdom for almost two decades was that no tax increases could ever be passed without voter retribution. The stadium tax didn't even come up during Borst's final 2004 campaign. The Indiana Toll Road was a money loser, in part because legislators didn't have the guts to raise the rates since that magic year of 1985 even though inflation continued to march on.
The voters aren't stupid. Make a case for something - even something that appears to be controversial - that is supported with facts and logic, and Hoosiers will understand and come around.
I don't think it is a myth, for one thing. And how high would legislative salaries have to go to make a real difference? As long as we have a part-time legislature (and we should want to keep it), it will attract people whose main income lies elsewhere. If we want to make salaries large enough to attract people for whom the Legislature will fill all their monetary needs, we might as well have full-time legislators.
I haven't noticed a lack of people willing to run for the General Assembly at the current pay level.
