Calls for performance-based pay for Members of Congress
January 17, 2012, St. James – Following yet another Long Island Association Monthly Economic Report for January showing Long Island experiencing the steepest job losses of any labor market in New York State, self-made businessman Randy Altschuler called on incumbent Congressman Tim Bishop to take a minimum 15% pay cut due to poor job performance and, if elected, Altschuler pledged to push for reforms that would implement a performance-based compensation system for Members of Congress.
“The fact that Suffolk County’s representative in Congress pockets $174,000 a year in taxpayer-funded salary no matter how poorly he performs his job, while his constituents – whose median household income is just under $83,000 per year – continue to lose their jobs by the thousands is inherently unfair,” said Altschuler, whose company, CloudBlue, has added hundreds of American jobs in the midst of a recession. “I challenge Congressman Bishop to take an immediate and voluntary 15% pay cut to show some level of shared sacrifice with the people he is supposed to represent. The fact that the Rochester and Utica-Rome regions of New York State are adding jobs and Long Island is losing them is completely unacceptable.”
Furthermore, Altschuler said the entire compensation system for Members of Congress should be repealed and replaced with a performance-based system that pays federal elected officials commensurate with the job they are doing in Washington.
“Being a Member of Congress is one of the few jobs in our country where your performance has no correlation with your pay,” said Altschuler. “How does it make any sense that congressional approval ratings are at historic lows and Long Island has endured the steepest job losses of any labor market in the State, yet Congressman Bishop hasn’t seen any decline in his taxpayer-funded salary? We need to start holding our elected officials more accountable for their failures in office, and implementing performance-based pay for Congress would be a good start.”
Excerpts from the LIA Report (LINK)
“Long Island lost jobs year‐over‐year for the seventh consecutive month in November. A total of 8,600 non‐farm jobs were lost between November 2010 and November 2011. Of these, 4,400 were private sector jobs and 4,200 were government jobs.
Private‐sector job gains were concentrated in retail trade and health care. There were significant private sector job losses in manufacturing, wholesaling, miscellaneous services and in the leisure and hospitality sector.
Government job losses were concentrated in local government education. School districts are slimming down and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future given current fiscal constraints.
It is significant that Long Island’s November job losses were the steepest of any labor market in the state. For example, neighboring New York City gained 23,600 jobs and the nearby Putnam‐Rockland‐Westchester labor market gained 5,700 jobs in the twelve months ending in November.
Even traditionally depressed upstate labor markets gained jobs. The Rochester area gained 8,700 jobs and the Utica‐Rome area gained 3,200 jobs. There were small year‐over‐year job losses in the Albany, Glens Falls, Ithaca, and Poughkeepsie metropolitan areas.
