“Double-dipping ban,” “136 years is long enough,” and “pay raise repeal,” were three of the most used phrases by GOP candidates during the 2010 election cycle. After Republicans ended the Democrats’ 136 year reign of excess, they went on to repeal the pay raise Democrat legislators had passed themselves. But even before that, as a part of their “Handshake with Alabama,” they ended the practice of double-dipping, which occurs when state legislators collect two state paychecks — one as a legislator and another as an educator or other type of state employee.
Today the Senate Education Committee gave a favorable report to what I’m going to call the “Quinton Ross Act.” Senator Quinton Ross is a Montgomery Democrat and the director of the Adult Education Consortium at H. Trenholm State Technical College. He currently receives two state paychecks — and he’d like to keep it that way.
The “Quinton Ross Act” (SB414) would allow legislators who were state employees before December 2010 to be grandfathered in and allowed to continue double-dipping. Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh is the sponsor of the legislation which is now on it’s way to the full Senate for debate.
“We’ve taken this approach in all other streamlining and efficiency initiatives related to state employees and I think it’s important to maintain that fairness,” Senator Marsh told Yellowhammer in a statement. “This does not in any way weaken or repeal the law, but it ensures that we’re not changing the rules in the middle of the game for someone who ran for office under the assumption they were going to keep their job.”
Insiders say Marsh has no intention of actually passing the legislation but sees it as a way to pacify certain Democrat Senators, such as Senator Ross, and keep things moving along in the upper chamber — particularly after relationships were damaged with the passage of the Alabama Accountability Act.
But this is just a bad idea. The way I and others I’ve spoken with read the bill, it also leaves the door open for future legislators to double-dip as long as they were employed in their other state job before Decemeber 2010.
Being elected to the Alabama legislature is a privilege, and should be viewed as an act of service. If serving means you have to adjust your lifestyle, that’s a sacrifice potential candidates should understand and weigh during the decision making process.
No one is entitled to two state paychecks, and it should stay that way for everyone.
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