What’s a better use of money than Richland council members raising their own pay? Anything
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could give yourself a pay raise for all your hard work?
Richland County Council members are looking to give themselves a raise, and all they just have to do push a button.
As reported by The State’s Bristow Marchant and Sarah Ellis, Richland County Council is proposing to raise its own yearly pay by nearly 80%. Officially, council members will be paid 80% of what the lowest paid county employee earns. That’s about $26,000 for most council members and almost $28,000 for the chair. As is, council members receive $14,500 and the chair receives $16,000.
The proposed raises will cost taxpayers nearly $286,000. The council voted Tuesday 8-3 to approve the raise, but needs to vote twice more for the increase to be finalized. Those in favor of the pay raise were: Derek Pugh, Yvonne McBride, Paul Livingston, Gretchen Barron, Overture Walker, Jesica MacKey, Allison Terracio and Cheryl English. Those against the pay raise were Chakisse Newton, Joe Walker III and Bill Malinowski.
The raises wouldn’t go into effect until the end of each council members’ current terms, meaning they must be elected again to see any raise. The terms of five council members expire after the November election, including Walker, Malinowski, Livingston, Newton and Terracio. Walker and Malinowski aren’t seeking reelection; the other three are running unopposed in November. Elections for the other six council districts will be held in 2024.
The number of better uses for that $286,000 is endless.
Give that money to a single single parent so that mom or dad can have one great year. Buy fireworks and put on free shows for families. Shoot cash from a cannon atop the county administration building and let the bills rain down. Every single option is better than council members giving themselves raises.
Simply put, pay raises for council members are a waste of public dollars.
I could think of no more disrespectful gesture by council than to equate what members receive with what a worker earns. How could a council member look a worker in the eye and say: I get paid almost the same as you for showing up a couple days a month for a volunteer service.
Sure, council members have to do a bit more than show up for regular council meetings twice a month. But they don’t work nearly as hard as an employee who must show up daily for eight hours.
A council member could get elected and basically do nothing for four years. But now that do-nothing would get at least $104,000 in taxpayer money — maybe more if the council votes to raise the pay of the workers who make the least. Remember, each time that the lowest paid workers get a raise, council members walk away with more too. From now on, council members could raise their pay without specifically voting to do that.
That is not acceptable.
As the majority of working class people struggle to pay for the gas to get to work, spend more on every grocery trip and wonder how much longer they can afford housing costs, council members are just going to give themselves more money? How out of touch could they be?
Council is also setting up a moral debacle. By connecting their own raises to a percentage of what some workers earn, council is conflating public service to a job. While boosting their compensation, council members are cheapening the notion of public service. Public service is a higher calling that is measured in ways beyond a wage. By even considering pay raises, council is feeding the cynics who believe government is full of self-serving snakes who won’t do anything to better lives.
Council member deserve some money for their service — a stipend to pay for gas, a small amount of expense money to finance minor community services. In 2022, the $14,500 they currently received isn’t unreasonable.
Here’s an even better idea. Council member’s pay should be based on the value of their personal assets. More for those with less and less for those with more with a cap on pay that’s equivalent to $15 an hour. Give nothing to those with personal assets more than certain amount, maybe $250,000 or so. This would compensate the working class who sacrifice more to serve.
Since a council pay scale like that is less likely to happen than the council shooting public money out of a cannon, let’s just stick with calling for them to not give themselves a raise.
This story was originally published October 19, 2022 at 12:38 PM.