In The Loop – June 17, 2022

Two, four, or unlimited? Who knows!

This week an interesting Office of Legislative Research (OLR) report came out talking about the difference in term lengths across all the 50 state legislatures. As you may recall, I mentioned this past session legislators had approved an increase in legislative pay since many felt the role is more than part-time. Folks raised the challenges of trying to balance family life, professional responsibilities and legislative duties. Many commented that they find it hard to have a primary job since many employers are reluctant or won’t accommodate the time commitments needed to do a good job of representing a district. A few mentioned the low compensation also kept them from even considering campaigning for a seat.

After a short and to-the-point debate on the House floor, it passed with a strong bipartisan vote 95-53, with the Senate following in short time, approving the measure with no debate.

Base pay for a legislator will jump in January 2023 after the election in Nov. 2022 to $ 40,000 from $28,000. Many thought the compensation adjustments were reasonable, especially since they had not changed in over two decades. The law also relieves the legislature from having to revisit the compensation rate since it will now be adjusted to something called the Employment Cost Index. A number calculated by the US Department of Labor Statistics. …KEEP READING…