Alberta taxpayers should fully support the 3.2 per cent raise which MLAs received on April 1. Based on Statistics Canada's average weekly earnings index, these annual increases are transparent and fair.

But other aspects of MLA compensation need reform.

For example, when you log on to the Legislative Assembly's web site (www.assembly.ab.ca) and click on "MLA remuneration," you won't see any mention of the extravagant severance pay packages which MLAs voted themselves in 2001. Nor will the main page tell you that MLAs receive an "RSP allowance" of $9,000 per year in addition to their salary and their tax-free allowance. Why not give taxpayers the true picture, simply by listing the RSP allowance and huge severance pay on that web page

To the average Alberta taxpayer, MLA remuneration remains complicated. They now get a salary of $45,132, plus an RSP allowance of $9,000, plus a tax-free allowance of $22,566. An MLA's annual income from these three sources totals $76,698. But considering that no tax is paid on $22,566, the MLA's real after-tax earnings are close to that of an Albertan earning $83,000 per year.

While earning an annual salary equivalent to $83,000, MLAs get huge severance pay packages upon retirement or defeat, based on three months' salary for every year in office, calculated on the highest-earning years as premier, opposition leader, speaker, minister, or committee chair. Ralph Klein will get $670,000 if he retires in 2008, and many ministers will each receive over $600,000 if they retire in 2008. MLAs will tell you they don't have a pension plan. What they won't tell you is that the Tories themselves loudly and publicly abolished the MLA pension plan, and used this to beat the Liberals in the 1993 provincial election. It is hypocritical for MLAs to whine about the absence of a pension plan which they themselves chose to abolish.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation continues to ask the Alberta government to adopt principles of simplicity, transparency, accountability and fairness in MLA compensation.

Simplicity would mean paying Alberta MLAs one straight salary, as is done in B.C., Manitoba and Ontario. For example, a Manitoba MLA earns $65,535 and pays tax on it like any other Manitoban earning $65,535, without an extra tax-free allowance or a huge severance pay package.

Transparency would mean displaying the MLAs' RSP allowance and generous severance pay on the main web page, for all taxpayers to see.

Accountability would mean public input and consultation prior to changing MLA compensation. Accountability would mean that changes to MLA compensation would not go into effect until after the next provincial election. Never again should MLAs do what they did in 2001, meeting just five months after a provincial election and voting themselves huge increases to their remuneration, effective immediately, without any public input or debate.

Fairness would mean bringing MLA severance packages into line with what other Albertans get. There is no job on earth which, when you quit or get fired, pays you three months' salary for every year on the job. For MLAs to earn a salary equivalent to $83,000 per year is adequate and reasonable; forcing taxpayers to shell out literally millions of dollars in severance pay is not.

Until MLAs adopt these principles of simplicity, transparency, accountability, and fairness, their compensation will remain an issue.