An issue I am familiar with has raised it’s ugly head again as brought about by several high profile cases of what appears to be Legislators cutting deals with the Governor to get cushy state jobs in exchange for doing his bidding during the legislative session. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/longtime_state_legislat...

This needs to be fixed by passing a new law that cures this problem easily by mandating that legislators must wait for a couple of years before being hired by the state, just like the prohibition they must abide by regarding private lobbying.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what is going on here friends. Powerful and influential legislators are trading their votes during the session in an effort to enhance their personal pocketbook down the road with an Executive Branch appointment from the Governor.

I saw this illegal profiting when I was in the Legislature with a Republican Legislator who was in charge of a Ways and Means subcommittee created a new position (sound familiar?), then resigned from the Legislature to take this nearly 100k per year job (complete with full benefits). This was the subject of much talk amongst fellow legislators later on, especially since apparently no one knew this had happened during the session.

This issue left a very bad taste in my mouth, yet I was powerless to do anything about it. Why? Because even my fellow Republicans couldn’t muster the courage to pass a law I proposed in 99 to remove legislators from the public employees pension system as so many benefited from this excessive retirement program. So why would we expect any legislature to this practice?

Too bad, because we continue to see more of this abuse in the future unless the people rise up through the initiative process and put limits on self serving politicians.

Now there’s a thought!