You may recall while I was on family vacation last month, I filmed a video and shared that I would NOT be taking the legislative pay raise that was slid in the budget (by the Senate) mid-term.
I do not and did not support the legislative pay increase.
IF the legislature was going to ever increase their compensation, it must be more transparent about it and it MUST START for the NEXT TERM, not the current term we are serving. The people need to decide if lawmakers that took the extra funds deserve another term before receiving these increased funds.
An $18,000 pay hike is a lot of money for many South Carolina families struggling to make ends meet. This is not a small sum.
Do you agree?
For many years, I returned my legislative salary to the community (mainly through scholarships to our students). That salary has remained at $10,400 since 1990. Prior to that it was $10,000 from 1978 until 1990.
Public service should never be about the money. It should be about serving others. My slogan since my first campaign was always People, Not Politics.
If you have thoughts on whether increasing legislative pay is a good thing or bad thing, please let me know!
They knew what the pay scale was when they run for Office they should accept it and ask for nothing more
Legislators should get no more increase than state employees.
I can not say I am shocked about this back door pay raise issue. This is SOP for elected officials. When I go to vote for a representative I am always of the mind set that I am casting a vote for the lesser of the two evils. This is the way it has been and always will be, at least during my life time.
Thanks Nathan for not accepting the increased pay. Not that there should not be one but from $1000 to $2500 is pretty significant. They should increase teacher pay that much.
Yes I’m proud of you for declining the pay raise in the last State budget. This was slipped into the budget at the last minute with no public discussion. Constituents can’t really tell who voted for or against this, because it was part of a huge budget bill.
I think they should look at comparable positions when looking at a pay raise, hours spent working, etc. I have no problem with a pay raise if they truly have not had one for years and years. Most people do get regular raises on their jobs, or fairly regularly. I understand public service and have been a volunteer on 2 working Boards for years, but I don’t expect these elected positions to be volunteer with the time/responsibilities expected of you. Volunteering and choosing your hours, what you do, etc. is not the same as serving in an elected position with expectations to be met. Just because you all are elected officials, does not mean you should not receive fair compensation for what you do. I suspect most people against any raise would not do the work for what you all are paid or for free. I do agree the process should be transparent with rationale for the raise and the amount of the raise explained.
I think you are right, re:pay raise, No matter where we work, live and pay taxes. We can strive to keep pay down for elected officials. We should find out just which hours of any day are spent by an elected person, working for our money. How much have they , he or she, built for life improvement. to those of us who pay for living here in the Ballentine County. First is there such a thing as a County for Ballentine residents? I need to find out if our old , Civic Center, meetings are still a thing. If not, why would we pay anyone?
As a working person, I never stoped. I cleared so many cases, I knew I contributed to my employer’s health and welfare each moment I worked. It often looks like I work while all others are growing their physical seats. Well, nobody tells me how much and how fast my work could be done. No job takes too much time from an Educated person’s work day. We, just keep on working. Most people look for a way to “look like they are working,” while shopping at the dime store up the parking lot. That area never put thought into my my brain. The political parties, either EDUCATE or DO NOT.
Do your children seem to have no ambition? Siting around is not work but choice.
since no real education was given to any student. Unfortunately, lack of EDUCATION has not been addressed since 1955 when the KKK became the Rep’s choice to replace elected officials with their version of an education is the lack of education like here in S.C. The KKK took over in 1955 and threw our elected choices out for putting our taxes to pay themselves, in our community. The throw you out was Telivised and nobody tried to save our children. Try to ascertain if your child ever made great grades and then worked for a better way to grow. If they went to school without card carrying taught teachers. My class had exactly one person who was very educated. Most of us, if not all of us, had Babysitters which were never educated.
the Legislator who stole all of our allocated money for his own personal self, was a name I knew all too well. Last name was Thurm…. The deaths in our state are never investigated, however, over 10,000 names were called on to justify their lust for our federal and state money. S.C. has never cared or published the death of any and all of us residents. Answers were made up. Then, death of anybody who was a really EDUCATED person. No wonder they all say’ we need more money for teaching”.
Perhaps you should request a written explanation of what they “will” teach.