Legislative Staff get Pay Raises - Six Figures

The pay increases aren't six figures - that startled me at first glance, but many will be earning six figures.

I think teachers, firemen, police and nurses should all be paid six figures.

The pay increases aren't six figures - that startled me at first glance, but many will be earning six figures.

I think teachers, firemen, police and nurses should all be paid six figures.

I agree. I wish they would do whatever it is they need to do to get teachers up to six figures.

Oddly, part of the problem here goes back to term limits. It takes a while for a new legislator to get up to speed on even a small number of issues he/she is called to vote on, and when you're in the learning stage, you have to lean heavily on staffers to accurately summarize the problem and possible solutions. And then just when you're an expert in a given policy area, you're term-limited out.

And then the next group of legislators comes in and leans heavily on the group of people left who do have that kind of institutional knowledge that the legislators no longer have time to develop. So they've got a sizeable incentive to keep those knowledge-keepers on their own payrolls instead of losing them to high-paying lobbyist jobs. And they consequently open up the State's checkbook for that group.

I agree. I wish they would do whatever it is they need to do to get teachers up to six figures.

While I gripe about my property taxes, the public schools are 50% and this is one area you won't hear a peep out of me......unless they are furloughing teachers AND proposing higher mills because they don't have a clue how to adjust a budget from property values of 2006 / 2007. The gall!

I agree. I wish they would do whatever it is they need to do to get teachers up to six figures.

Wow, I'll always remember where I was when wrobert endorsed tax increases. 😱

Save for the usual suspect high cost of living areas, (SF, NYC, LA and the like) it really doesn't make sense to go six figures for K-12 teachers and LEOs. If the public sector feels like it needs to compete with the private sector, then provide wages + benefits package slightly to moderately higher than that, but not stupidly so.

So a quick google says median household income in Walton County is $45K a year. Seems like something along the lines of start at $35K a year, and $60-$65K a year after 10 years would be reasonable in terms of a teacher required to have a Bachelor's degree plus continuing education education credits or a highly skilled LEO. They're providing a high level of service to the community, and are being rewarded for it, and wages are high enough to provide incentives, but you're not busting the personnel budget to do so.

(And I say this as the offspring of two schoolteachers. Yeah, it would always be nice to have more toys growing up and all, but I also realize that we were pretty financially comfortable and what they did bring in)