LEGISLATORS' PAY: CUT IT, AND RAISE THE EXPENSE ALLOWANCE

For starters, Missouri's legislators already are paid too much. At $26,830 in annual salary plus $35 a day in expense money, state lawmakers make enough to be considered full-time bureaucrats, even though many representatives and senators own businesses or hold other jobs at home.

All the talk about pay increases for legislators, other state elected officials and judges so far has failed to address the issue of whether or not Missouri wants full-time professional lawmakers. Earlier this year, a voter-approved citizens commission came up with the ludicrous notion of giving lawmakers and judges a 21 percent pay increase. This plan was turned down by the Legislature in January. Otherwise, the recommended increase would have gone into effect without a vote, either of legislators or the people.

Missouri's history, like that of most other states, has been one of part-time legislators who represented their fellow citizens at home by living and working most of the year in their districts and spending as little time in Jefferson City as possible. All that gradually changed. Sessions are held every year. The length of the sessions has grown longer. And interim committees and other duties keep most legislators busy even when the Legislature is adjourned.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Look at the trend. Most savvy political observers agree that the quality of individual legislators has declined in direct inverse proportion to increases in legislative salaries. Instead of considering pay raises, the Legislature would do well to consider cutting or eliminating the salaries entirely and finding ways to meet less often for shorter periods of time.

The other side of the pay issue is the daily expense allowance. At $35 a day, the allowance doesn't cover a legislator's expenses while in Jefferson City on official business. This allowance should be increased to a reasonable amount that would pay for lodging and meals.

Over in Kansas, the state capitol is abuzz with the same pay issue. In that state, a bill proposing an increase to $35,697 a year in pay for legislators from the current $18,597 has all but been shot down for this session. The average pay for state legislators in all 50 states is $49,307, an indication of how successful elected officials have been at becoming full-time political jobholders instead of citizen legislators.

Despite concerns about the constitutionality of Legislature-imposed pay and expense increases, Missouri's lawmakers should do what any sane businessman would do: increase the daily expense allowance. And, given a choice between having salaries set by an unelected, unaccountable citizens commission appointed by the governor and other state officials or the voter-accountable legislators themselves, the latter is far more preferable.