by Benjamin Yount
One Republican candidate for governor in Wisconsin wants to pay lawmakers less in order to get them to think more about service.
Republican Kevin Nicholson wants to classify the State Assembly and State Senate as part-time jobs, and cut their $55,141 yearly salaries.
“My feeling is that pay and benefits should be paid out in accordance with work performance,” Nicholson told The Center Square. “Moving to a part-time legislature, a citizen legislature, will allow more people to serve their state and their communities.”
Nicholson says his plan to cut lawmaker pay is not “punitive.”
Nicholson is running for governor while thumbing his nose at legislative leaders in Wisconsin, particularly Republic Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.
“I believe we have a broken political class,” Nicholson said. “I don’t think the whole legislature is going to turn over, but if [lower pay] brings in 25% new voices with grounded, real jobs, and their voices are added to the legislature, I think that’s an enormous win.”
The National Conference of State Legislatures says Wisconsin is near the top of the legislative pay scale at just over $55,000 a year in base-salary.
Pennsylvania tops the NCSL list at over $90,000 per-year, followed by Michigan at $71,000 per-year, and Massachusetts at just over $70,000.
New Mexico’s lawmakers don’t earn any base salary, while New Hampshire pays just $100 per year, and Kansas pays just $88 per session day.
Nicholson is not saying just how much, or how little, he’d like to see lawmakers paid.
Nicholson said he is not afraid that lower pay in Wisconsin would drive out lawmakers, which could result in a state with only lawmakers with the ability to afford to work for part-time pay.
He hopes lowering legislative pay would encourage more people to see a term in office as service, not a career.
“Look at it a lot like National Guard Service,” Nicholson explained. “Members of the National Guard do have to miss certain days of work in order to meet their required service, training, or deployment. But at the end of the day, they are able to do all different jobs in all walks of life. So everybody from firefighters to cops to teachers to business owners, and everyone in between serves in the National Guard.”
His plan is just a suggestion for now. He would, of course, have to convince lawmakers to lower their own pay if he is elected governor.
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Benjamin Yount contributes to The Center Square.
Photo “Kevin Nicholson” by Wisconsin Vote.
