One of the worst things you can do for liberty and human flourishing is to pay your legislature and give them benefits. It’s also not good for tax burden, business and job growth, regulation, education, health care costs, and the list goes on.
The moment people become financially dependent on making rules to run other people’s lives, your life becomes increasingly and unnecessarily more expensive and cumbersome.
New Hampshire has 400 House legislators who get 100.00 a year plus “mileage,” basically. The State Senate gets the same pay, and there are 24 of them. And the Granite State is consistently one of the most economically free places in the hemisphere. In the past decade, it has lowered taxes every year, ended some taxes, prevented others, and is poised to become the freest state in the nation for education freedom. Health freedom keeps improving, and it is working to pass cash-only care, which will drive costs down and increase competition, especially after it ended the care cartel’s long held by large hospitals.
The party that opposes most or all of that happens to be the one that would love a smaller, professional legislature, and if those Democrats ever get the power, they will first undo all the good and then consider wrecking that political infrastructure. Why? Because boo hoo, how do you expect anyone to run for office who can do it “properly” if they can’t make a living at it?
Danger!!!
Which brings me to this.
Hartford Democrat Esme Cole entered the Legislature in 2022 and served on the House Human Services Committee.
“It’s a long-term commitment. Whether it’s two years or however long you stay in this building,” Cole said.
When she isn’t at the Statehouse in Montpelier, Cole picks up shifts at a restaurant, works at a senior center and moonlights as a dental assistant. She’s one of an estimated 3,000 Vermonters whose federal healthcare subsidies expired. Having to cover that expense makes running for office financially untenable, so she’s not seeking reelection.
Don’t worry, they found a Republican to quote who makes the same argument.
“The single biggest thing for me is the time,” Mattos said.
He’s now a father of two and runs a real estate and excavation business, which is taking off. He said he just doesn’t have the time to balance serving in the Legislature.
“I love the aspect of a citizen Legislature, and I would love it to be more of a 90-day session. That would make it more obtainable for young people in Vermont,” Mattos said.
The words citizen legislature do not mean what you think they mean.
A longer session and more pay and benefits might be better for people who want to make a living taking what other people make away. Vermont is already overpaying its “representatives, who make 16-20K a session for a few months’ work. The result?
New Hampshire and Vermont used to be the twin states. Not that long ago, they were politically, economically, and culturally aligned. After the hippies took over the government, Vermont turned blue, and the state has been on a long downward slide ever since.
New Hampshire kicks its ass in almost every category, especially tax burden. Our property taxes are high, but we don’t really have any other taxes. That one is only a problem because of the public education cartel, and we’re working on that.
The WCAX piece closes with, “Three years ago, Republican Gov. Phil Scott vetoed a bill that would have raised lawmaker pay and provided healthcare benefits.“
Vermont has a lot of problems to fix, but the first ought to be to stop overpaying its legislators, but they are never going to cut their own pay. They will keep trying to raise it while they look for ways, and lots of excuses, to take more of yours, to finance the continued decline of a once great state. The best you are going to do with that is to stop electing Democrats, and once you go blue, there’s not much you can do.
No excuse not to keep trying.
