by Rep. Greg Overstreet, HD-88, Stevensville
I wanted to explain to readers a vote I took in the Montana House of Representatives because it shows some trickery that none of us like.
House Bill 13 was a modest pay raise for Montana state employees. The collective bargaining representatives for employees and the Governor agreed to the amounts. So far, so good.
However, hidden in House Bill 13 was a pay raise for legislators. I strongly opposed the legislative pay raise.
Legislators don’t do this for the money. It’s hard to get elected, we put in 16-hour days, we put our jobs – and salaries – on hold for months, and we are away from our families. Legislative service is not about the very small salary we receive. No one “makes” money serving in the Legislature.
Because I think it is inappropriate to vote in a pay raise for yourself, I voted for an amendment to take the legislator pay raise out of the bill. The amendment failed with legislators in both parties wanting to raise their own pay. I was disappointed in my colleagues.
Now I faced a dilemma: vote for a bill with a legislative pay raise (that I tried to have removed) or vote no on a well-deserved pay raise for state employees. I chose state employees over my dislike of the legislative pay raise.
I hope no one points to my vote to raise state employee pay – with the legislative pay raise hidden in it that I voted to remove – and claims I “voted to raise my pay.”
But there is a practical solution to this: I will donate my legislative pay raise back to the state.
Regular Montanans don’t have the luxury of voting themselves a raise so neither should I.