LANSING – In a move to help reform state government and ease budget pressures, State Representative Kate Ebli (D-Monroe) voted today for a plan to cut lawmaker salaries by 5 percent and end free lifetime health care for legislators.
"During these tough times, we all have to make sacrifices – and legislators should be no exception," Ebli said. "Making this legislative pay cut will save more than $500,000 a year that can be spent on urgent needs in our communities such as education, police and fire protection, and job creation. We must look for prudent places to cut spending, and making cuts in these areas makes perfect sense."
The House passed a resolution calling on the State Officers Compensation Commission (SOCC), the body in charge of determining legislator salaries, to decrease lawmakers' salaries by 5 percent beginning with the 2009-10 legislative year, the earliest allowed under the constitution.
The legislation also will:
- Cut the salaries of the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Attorney General and the Secretary of State.
- Urge the SOCC to refrain from enacting salary increases that exceed the average increase in state employee pay.
- Reduce health care benefits for the Legislature and the Lieutenant Governor.
Today's resolution continues House legislators' efforts to reform government and cut wasteful spending. The House passed a plan earlier this year that cuts its budget by 5 percent, or $3 million. The plan requires lawmakers and their staffs to pay more for health care, prohibits State Representatives from using state funds for out-of-state travel and cuts positions in the House to eliminate redundancies.
"No other worker in Michigan walks away from a job after six years with free health care for life, and legislators shouldn't either," Ebli said. "This special treatment of our state's lawmakers is an expensive, extravagant practice that must end."