Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Oklahoma Legislators Should Take Pay Cut

Oklahoma Legislators Should Take Pay Cut



Goodwell - Stephen Skacall, independent candidate for State House District 61, issued a call today for the Legislature to enact an immediate pay cut. “With more budget cuts looming around the corner, you’d think that our legislators would be doing everything in their power to make those cuts as small as possible. Unfortunately, they aren’t. The first thing the Legislature should have done is cut their own salaries.”

Skacall points to the unusually high salary given to state legislators in Oklahoma, when compared to other states, as evidence of government waste. “If legislators in Texas are willing to serve their constituents for seven thousand dollars a year, why aren’t Oklahoma’s legislators willing to do the same thing?”

Legislators in Oklahoma currently receive an annual salary of over $38,000, which is roughly twelve percent higher than the average per capita income for Oklahomans and well above the legislative salaries of most other states.

“Legislators are supposed to be public servants. While we obviously cannot expect our legislators to work without pay, it makes no sense to pay them lavish salaries when our state is in the middle of an ongoing economic disaster,” Skacall said.

Skacall proposed tying legislative salaries to the median per capita income of Oklahomans.

“Tying their salaries to the median per capita income would save the state more than half a million dollars per year, enough to hire dozens of police officers, teachers, paramedics, or other vital employees. While this is only a drop in the bucket, it would definitely help. Additionally, this would provide an incentive for our legislators to improve the economy of the state, which would eventually lead to increases in their salaries as the median income goes up statewide.”

Skacall pledged to take a personal pay cut if elected, even if the Legislature fails to pass such a cut.

“If the voters choose me to represent them in Oklahoma City for the next two years, not only will I personally write the bill to tie legislative salaries to the statewide median income, I will personally take a ten percent pay cut if the Legislature fails to act on my bill. I will donate that ten percent of my state salary to local charities to do my part to offset some of the budget cuts that the Legislature plans to enact this year,” Skacall said.

Stephen Skacall is a resident of Goodwell and is running for State House District 61 as an independent. He is a church musician and an active member of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Guymon. Skacall can be reached by e-mail at chooselibertynow@yahoo.com for questions or comments related to the campaign. Interested voters can also visit http://skacall2010.blogspot.com or visit the campaign on Facebook for more information.