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Legislative pay
Cheap Labor: Fla. Lawmakers
Lawmakers in states with similar legislative workloads earn far more.
 “Nobody told me how much time it would require, or I never would have taken the job,” says state Rep. Ed Homan, whose surgery practice has suffered. [Photo: Michael Heape] |
During his first year in office, Homan, a Republican, emerged as a key player on such critical issues as medical malpractice reform.
But while Homan was in Tallahassee, his solo orthopedic surgery practice suffered a setback. The five special sessions that the Florida Legislature convened in 2003 to tackle medical malpractice reform left little time for Homan to tend to his patients. “Referring doctors quit referring me patients,” Homan says. “They said, ‘We never know when you’re going to be in town.’ ” As his patient base dwindled, so did revenue. His House salary — about $29,000 a year — provided little cushion. Eventually, he says, he was only drawing enough money to pay for the overhead costs of maintaining his office.
At the end of his first year in office, Homan and his wife decided he needed to find another day job, or he’d have to quit the Legislature. He landed a job teaching at the University of South Florida medical school and continued practicing medicine on a smaller scale. “Nobody told me how much time it would require, or I never would have taken the job,” Homan says.
| Cheap Labor Lawmakers in states with similar legislative workloads earn far more than Florida legislators: |
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| ? | Base Salary (Year) | Session Per Diem |
| California | $116,208 | $173 |
| Michigan | $79,650 | $12,000 yearly expense allowance |
| New York | $79,500 | Varies/tied to federal rate |
| Pennsylvania | $78,314 | $158/tied to federal rate |
| Illinois | $67,836 | $132 |
| Massachusetts | $61,440 | $10 to $100 depending on distance |
| Ohio | $60,584 | None |
| Wisconsin | $49,943 | Up to $88 |
| New Jersey | $49,000 | None |
| Florida | $29,697 | $126 House/ $133 Senate |
| Source: National Conference of State Legislatures | ||
His fellow lawmakers can relate.
Rep. Dave Murzin, a Pensacola Republican who makes a living in real estate and property management, says the balancing act between legislative service and maintaining a professional and personal life is the “biggest challenge” state lawmakers face. Murzin, also first elected in 2002, says he had to turn his job as a property manager over to his assistant during his first year in office.
“This is a part-time job that people are leaving because it’s not part time,” says Murzin. “That’s why rich people and retired people are the ones that are now involved in the process. Normal, everyday people — the guys that go to Wal-Mart — we can’t stay in the game because it’s financially devastating. Time-wise, it’s devastating.”
House Speaker Larry Cretul was a home builder when he was first elected to the Legislature in 2002. Initially, he says, he had a couple of employees who were “able to keep the home fires burning” and work with customers when he was out of town tending to legislative business. Eventually, he says, it got to a point where it didn’t work anymore. “When you hire me to build you a home, that’s the most important decision people make in their whole life, and they certainly don’t want to be told the builder is in Tallahassee doing the people’s work.”
The juggling act proved too much for Chris Hart, a Republican from Tampa, who served two terms from 1998 to 2002 but opted not to run again because it was too hard on his family. “It’s a challenge, and you have to decide what you’re going to do. Ultimately, for me, I’d also started a business with a friend of mine, had a political career and a young family. I found I could manage or juggle two. I thought I could do two really well, but three? In the third, something was always lacking, and for me what finally had to give way was the political.”
The rigors of legislative life also contributed to former Senate President Ken Pruitt’s decision to leave the Legislature this year, a year before his term is up. He told his local newspaper that the demands of legislative service were increasing in the midst of the recession.
A national problem
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan group that provides research and technical assistance to legislators and staffs throughout the country, as the U.S. population has grown so has the size of many legislative districts. These larger districts generate an increased demand for constituent service, committee work and other time spent away from home. The trend is changing the face of legislatures: Lawmakers who classify themselves as “full-time legislators” have overtaken attorneys as the largest occupational category in state legislatures today, a recent NCSL study showed.
While the Florida Legislature is technically defined as a part-time body because it meets only 60 days each year in regular session with the possibility of special sessions as needed, the NCSL classifies it as a full-time legislature based on workload. That’s because when additional committee work, constituent services and campaign activity are factored in, it becomes very close to a full-time job.
NCSL analyst Karl Kurtz says that when his organization surveyed Florida lawmakers, the average response was that their lawmaker duties require about 76% of the time commitment of a full job. “There are 10 legislatures that we count as being full-time legislatures. I actually put Florida into that category because most legislators in Florida tell us they spend most of their time being legislators,” says Kurtz.
What sets Florida lawmakers apart from those other states, however, is the amount of compensation they receive.
Homan figures that his income has probably dropped by half, and he’s worked 50% harder during the years he’s served in the Legislature — but he considers himself lucky. “I’m not saying that as a gripe. I can afford it. The house is paid off. The kids are through college — but the reality is that is what happened.” He says he was looking to make a difference in Tallahassee, not get rich. “You know what they say, ‘The way to end up in politics with a small fortune is to start with a big one.’ ”
