Legislators claim part-time job really is full-time, and vice-versa

Editorial
Published: March 28, 2008

Good for DuWayne Bridges.

The District 38 representative from Valley is sponsoring a bill that would prohibit a legislator from holding a job in state government — including agencies such as public schools.

Bridges’ bill is similar to a measure taken by the Alabama State School Board, which prohibits legislators from holding jobs within the two-year college system. It’s called double-dipping, where a person draws a pair of paychecks from the state. In many circumstances, it can lead to conflicts of interest, even the appearance of which is counter-productive.

Last year, legislators voted themselves a whopping 60 percent pay raise on a bill Bridges didn’t support.

Many of his fellow lawmakers claimed the raise was warranted because, they said, serving as a legislator had become a full-time job.

Fast forward just a few months, and the story has changed. A reason many are using to argue against the ban on double dipping is that they need a second, full-time job on the state’s payroll.

“Now they are saying (being a lawmaker) is a part-time job,” Bridges said. “They can’t have it both ways.”

There have been a number of successful and dynamic legislators who held office and worked in the two-year system or as a state employee. But they didn’t make the headlines.

Those who abused the system and abused taxpayer money created the need for the double-dipping ban and it’s one that must be followed through. The opportunity for corruption is just too great.

Thirty states have seen their way to ban lawmakers from holding another position on the state payroll. That means that other than Alabama, just 19 states have no laws preventing lawmakers from holding state jobs.

Here’s betting that a few of those remaining 19 states have a miserable history of political corruption on par with Alabama.

The community college system’s new chancellor Bradley Byrne was right to end the practice. The governor was right to support the effort. Bridges was right to introduce this bill. And those who oppose it are just wrong.