Not much has been said about Proposition 302 and, to the best of my knowledge, no PACs have been formed to support or oppose it.
Nonetheless, this 50% increase in the legislative salary--leaving per diem pay untouched--raises some interesting questions about the nature of Arizona's legislature.
The Arizona Republic puts forth a few cogent arguments in favor, but its thinking is so far inside the box that I needed a flashlight to find it!
The question oughtn't be whether the time spent on the job merits full time pay, and I don't subscribe to the argument that legislators' nondesert of a raise stems from their political views.
Rather, I recommend voting down Proposition 302 as a step towards legislative reform. As Peter Schmerl and former legislator John Kromoko argued separately in 2000, there isn't enough real work for the legislature to do to merit a hundred-day session. If they have time to put symbolic English-only legislation on the ballot they have too much time for mischief on their hands. Keep their pay low--don't even adjust it for inflation--until their session becomes shorter and more focused.
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