When Sen. Don Benton announced his decision not to run for reelection, he touted Washington's citizen legislature. He said, "This benefits the Legislature, because our lawmakers reflect the full diversity of our state." I respectfully disagree.
The largest project I ever worked on saved my employer $250,000 per month. I don't think my employer would be happy to postpone the project for three months while I took a sabbatical in Olympia. After all, the state of Washington wouldn't cut my employer a check for the $750,000 they would lose during a three-month delay. This leaves me having to choose between staying out of elected office, or quitting to be a politician full-time. But Washington pays only part-time wages to its legislators, making such an option unaffordable to me.
I don't believe I'm the only one in this position. Washington has a lot of smart, highly skilled people at Boeing and Microsoft. Do you think any of them might want to help in Olympia, but can't afford to quit their jobs either? All that talent and all those brilliant ideas are excluded by paying part-time wages.
Sen. Benton should be well aware of the problems I just mentioned. Is it a mere coincidence that just one month after the election of Marc Boldt – a man sanctioned by the Clark County Republican Party – his "current employer (Clark County) has decided that it is no longer desirable for me (Benton) to serve in the legislature while doing my (Benton's) job at the county"? This is the dark underbelly of being beholden to another employer while legislating. If Washington was paying full-time legislators, Sen. Benton could have safely quit his county job. In fact, he would not have needed it in the first place.
Sen. Benton continued by saying, "this part-time legislature also benefits the lawmaker's employer." I'm sure it does, and I can describe those benefits with these phrases: undue influence and coercion; and then there's the cost savings of not having to hire a lobbyist. As the good book says, "a man cannot have two masters."
You get what you pay for, and when you pay for part-time legislators, you get only those who can afford to be part-time legislators.
Joseph Wagner
Vancouver
