EDMONTON, AB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) made 12 recommendations on how to fix and make transparent MLA pay today during its presentation to Justice Major and his Alberta MLA Compensation Review committee.

Leading the list of CTF recommendations is to reverse the 2008 secret pay hikes; eliminate all committee pay and replace it with one, equal, transparent salary; and to start taxing full MLA salaries.

The CTF has also calculated the potential severance payments known as “transition allowances” for all 83 MLAs. For the 21 who have already announced their intentions to retire, the cost could be around $9.9 million. The total potential cost to retire all 83 MLAs is $29.5 million.

“The two most important principles for politicians’ compensation is that it be transparent and not contain any perks that one couldn’t otherwise receive in the private sector,” continued Hennig. “The so-called ‘transition allowance’ is over-the-top. Almost nobody gets paid out a severance based on three months pay for every year served, especially when they voluntarily quit.”

In its submission entitled “Reversing the Kowalski Legacy,” the CTF makes other recommendations including banning all committee or extra pay, eliminating the transition allowance, putting a stop to the practice of paying for the health benefits of retired or defeated MLAs, posting MLA and cabinet expenses (including receipts) on-line and the adoption of a rule from B.C. where cabinet takes a 10 per cent pay cut if they don’t balance the budget.

Taking all of the CTF’s recommendations would result in paying backbench MLAs one full-taxable salary of $134,572, cabinet ministers, the speaker and leader of the opposition $183,077 and the premier $203,392. This is essentially a pay cut of 18.1 per cent for the highest paid backbench MLAs, a 1.4 per cent pay cut for the average MLA, a 6.2 per cent pay increase for the lowest paid backbench MLAs, a 5.8 per cent pay cut for cabinet ministers, a pay cut of 8.8 per cent for the speaker and opposition leader and a pay cut of 6.7 for the premier.

Complete copies of Reversing the Kowalski Legacy can be found online at: http://taxpayer.com/sites/default/files/Reversing-the-Kowalski-Legacy.pdf or by contacting the Alberta office at 1-800-661-0187.