Assembly Republicans declared this week that they were taking a voluntary 4.6 percent pay cut to show solidarity with state employees who had their pay reduced by the 2009 Legislature. “A promise made, a promise kept,” boasted Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert in the first and only press release coming out of her shop since the last session.
Sounds all fine and dandy, except….
The Republicans only agreed to actually fulfill the promise they made after Anjeanette Damon of the Reno Gazette-Journal reported last weekend that only ONE state legislator, Assemblyman Ed Goedhart (R-Amargosa Valley) had actually put his money where his rhetoric was.
If not for the newspaper story, no one thinks for a minute that these Republicans would have followed-up on their commitment.
And the promise made during the legislative session was to take a 6 percent cut, as was being proposed at the time, not 4.6 percent. Goedhart returned 6 percent, not 4.6 percent.
And the cut was supposed to be on the full salary legislators earned during the session, not on the pittance they pocket after the session for participating in “interim” committee hearings and such.
Goedhart wrote a check for 6 percent of the $8,777 he earned during the session. Gansert wrote a check for 4.6 percent of the approximately $800 she has earned SINCE the session ended.
Still, at least Assembly Republicans did SOMETHING…..even if they had to be “guilted” into doing it. Democrats, supposedly the party of the working stiff, have stiffed everybody. You see, Democrats only spend OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY.
