A few years ago Saskatchewan politicians found themselves in a bit of a pickle. Due to a soaring deficit and sluggish revenue growth, the government decided it was time to control spending.

They announced a "zero, one and one" wage mandate for all civil servants. The formula meant that all the unions who had contracts up for renegotiation would receive no raise in the first or second years and a one per cent raise in the third. The unions complained a lot but eventually the SGEU, the largest public sector union, accepted the conditions.

But a big problem arose when it came to MLA salaries. For years, the general rule was for MLAs to get raises in line with the inflation - which generally runs between two and three per cent annually. For most, the solution is obvious. If times are tough and civil servants are asked to forego a pay raise for two years, so should the politicians.

Politicians often have a way of making things more complicated than need be. They decided to thumb their noses at the civil service and take their raise anyway. This news did not go over well with the electorate and the politicians were shamed into withdrawing their raises.

Of course, whenever there is a fiasco the government's first instinct is to form a committee. The Saskatchewan MLA Indemnity Review Committee was established to make recommendations so politicians could avoid this unseemly mess in the future.

MLAs are paid $64,817 a year plus a $5,426 tax-free "allowance" which brings the total equivalent taxable salary to $73,173. But it doesn't stop there. MLAs are entitled to one month's worth of salary for every year of service whether they are fired by the electorate, voluntarily resign or retire. If an MLA loses or quits after a four-year term he or she is given a $25,000 payout. Then there's a rainbow of per diems, expense allowances, extra money for committee chairs, secretariats, cabinet positions and on and on.

In its submission to the committee, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) recommended eliminating the tax-free salary portion and the generous severance package as well as setting future raises for MLAs based on the annual increase in average earnings of Saskatchewan taxpayers.

Using "average weekly earnings" as a measure would mean politicians would get a raise when taxpayers do - which provides an element of "performance pay."

The CTF recommendations would result in a taxable salary for MLAs of $70,243. This would result in a short term pay cut of $244 per month, but that would be almost made up by last years' increase in average weekly earnings of 3.8 per cent.

The committee's final report had some good and not-so-good recommendations. It agreed with the CTF that the tax-free portion of the wage should be eliminated, that MLA salary adjustments should be set to an external measure. However, the committee chose inflation instead of average weekly earnings.

The real shocker in the report was the recommendation to increase MLA salaries by 10 per cent, effective after the next election. Again, no particular reason was given for the raise aside from "just because."

The politicians accepted the recommendations without a word of discussion or debate. The $7,000 raise was passed unanimously by an all-party committee of the legislature.

The committee predicts that the pay increase will cost taxpayers $500,000 per year once it takes effect, but that's not the real cost. The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour has already announced they plan on using the MLA raise to justify equal raises to the civil service. The price of this decision will be measured in millions, not thousands.