Russell Moore: Did Chafee’s Cabinet Deserve A Raise?
Monday, May 20, 2013
The state legislature is a pretty easy target for critics in the state of Rhode Island, and it's rapidly fired upon by everyone from avid political observers to casual followers. It's a large body, with over 113 members, and everyone seems to love their representative and senator, yet hate the legislature as a whole.
It's one thing to hate a large, faceless body, but not so easy to hold the guy who coaches your son's little league team in contempt, or dislike the woman who sits in the pew in back of you in church.
Admittedly, the state legislature doesn't always do itself any favors. They took forever to pass and implement separation of powers, which should have been a no-brainer. The Aid to Cities and Towns never seems to be as large as it should be. And then there is 38 Studios.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBut sometimes you've got to give the devil his due. And this past week was certainly another good week for House Speaker Gordon Fox, and the General Assembly as a whole.
First, the House, led by Fox, forced Governor Chafee to withdraw his plan to give his top cabinet members 3 percent, compounded raises twice over the next year--that's raises of over 6 percent, for those keeping score at home. Then on Friday the legislature unveiled its new "bill tracking" tracking software, which allows users to enter bills of interest into the system, and receive hourly updates as to the status of those bills.
Governor Chafee's plan to give raises to his top administrators was ill conceived from the start. First of all, despite the fact that the state's unemployment rate is slowly declining, the state's workforce is declining at an equally fast pace. That just means individuals are simply giving up hope, (sad, considering our state’s motto) dropping out of the workforce, and entering the underground economy earning money doing Lord knows what.
I can't see it as being an easy sell to the average, everyday Rhode Islanders, that Governor Chafee's cabinet members, all but one of which earns more than $100,000 per year, can't get by on their salaries. I think we need to keep in mind that ordinary folks are staring at a stack of bills on their kitchen table every week and trying to figure out which bills they're going to pay, and which ones they're going to hold off on for an additional week.
Then when the May revenue estimating conference came back expecting $50 million less than was to be expected when the budget was crafted, the issue became a complete non-starter.
But that didn't stop Governor Chafee from trying to give more taxpayer cash to his top political appointees. Chafee defended the raises saying that the cabinet level members had not had across-the-board raises in almost a decade. He also said it was a way to reward them for coming in under budget.
Governor Chafee might not be aware of this but here in the private sector, employees who come in under budget get to keep their jobs. Merely staying within one's budget is not in-and-of-itself worthy of a pay hike. It means you shouldn’t be fired.
Further, no one has ever been able to explain to me why 10 of the Governor's cabinet members deserve to earn more money than the Governor himself. How are these people underpaid again? I can understand paying someone who has a lot of responsibility, but who has more responsibility then the Governor himself, or the State Treasurer, or Secretary of State?
Governor Chafee earns $129,210 per year. General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, Secretary of State Ralph Mollis, and Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts are all earning $108,800 per year. With those facts in mind, how can anyone argue that Rosemary Booth Galloogly, the Director of Revenue, who earns $156,876, is underpaid? Or, how can one argue that Richard A. Licht, the Director of Administration, deserves more than $149,511?
Further, I’ve never seen Governor Chafee’s approval top 30 percent. Is that indicative that his top lieutenants deserve a pay hike? I’d say no.
Luckily for Rhode Islanders, Speaker Fox and a majority of the often maligned members of the House of Representatives had the good sense to get in the way of this ill-thought-out proposal by Governor Chafee. They deserve credit for this.
"I had legislation drafted last week that would halt the Governor's proposed pay raises, but I wanted to have the opportunity to discuss it further with my leadership team. We met... and our team unanimously agreed that we will be submitting this legislation for immediate consideration on the House floor," said Fox in a statement.
"This action is certainly no reflection on the fine work performed by the Governor's department directors. However, given the fragile condition of the state's economy and with so many people struggling, we firmly believe that this is not the time for the Governor to be awarding pay increases."
Let’s not forget that in April of last year, Governor Chafee was fit to be tied when the Board of Governors For Higher Education was considering giving raises to the personnel at the schools. Chafee couldn’t fathom how the board would consider awarding pay hikes “at a time when Rhode Islanders are struggling and when other state employees are making daily sacrifices to help the state remain fiscally healthy”. But consistency has never really seemed to be Governor Chafee’s strong suit.
Speaker Fox is right to point out that the issue is not whether or not the department directors do a good job. One would certainly hope so, as 15 of 16 are making more than $100,000 per year.
Some were also arguing that the money which would go towards raises would represent a very small portion of the budget--something like less than 1/10 of one percent. So what? And the $110 million owed on the 38 Studios' bonds is worth just slightly more than one percent of the whole $8 billion dollar budget, yet that never stopped the political pundits from making it seem like the issue would bankrupt the state.
With respect to the new website feature that will allow Rhode Islanders to monitor the status of bills they're interested in far more easily, the move is a welcome step forward towards transparency. The legislature admittedly has a ways to go to get where it should be with respect to sunlight, but the move is a welcome development and an excellent step forward.
The state legislature is far from perfect, but last week proved itself once again to be a useful check on Governor Chafee's power. Both the House of Representatives and the leadership of the State Senate deserve a hat tip for their good work last week.
A native Rhode Islander, Russell J. Moore is a graduate of Providence College and St. Raphael Academy. He worked as a news reporter for 7 years (2004-2010), 5 of which with The Warwick Beacon, focusing on government. He continues to keep a close eye on the inner workings of Rhode Islands state and local governments.
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