Title: Pay Raise
Sponsor: Rick O’Donnell for Congress
Type: TV ad
Message: The commercial says that 7th Congressional District Democratic candidate Ed Perlmutter had a history as a state senator of supporting tax increases and says he also voted to give himself a 71 percent pay raise when he was a part-time legislator in the state Senate.
Fact: Almost all the revenue votes that the commercial highlights didn’t raise taxes but gave local governments the right to increase fees or taxes if they chose to do so for specific purposes, such as increasing docket fees on court filings. The one statewide tax vote would have allowed state and local jurisdictions to charge a tax on Internet purchases from out-of-state retailers, but it never was signed into law. Perl mutter did vote to increase the pay of part-time legislators from $17,500 to $30,000 in 1997. The commercial fails to mention that when lagging revenues hit the state in 2002, Perlmutter proposed cutting legislative salaries in half. It also neglects to mention that Perlmutter did not take per diem expenses as a legislator, which can equal up to a third of a legislator’s annual salary.
– Christopher N. Osher
