Empower Wisconsin | Oct. 28, 2019
In Baraboo, Wis., common council members like to reward themselves with pay raises after a long day of increasing taxes and fees.
Talk about the audacity of dopes.
As the Baraboo News Republic reported, council members approved upping their monthly stipends to $400. Currently, the public servants take home about $300 per month in base salary, meeting pay premiums and annual expenses.
Not everybody jumped on board the pay raise train.
“I think it’s in really poor taste. We just passed two additional fees on all of the city residents and now we’re going to put $11,0000 in the budget for us,” said council member Heather Kierzek.
The council approved their uppers minutes after it hit Baraboo motorists with a $20 vehicle registration fee and a quarterly street light system charge of $9 for single-family homeowners, the News Republic reported.
Other council members complained that alders had not had a pay raise in over a decade and that it takes a lot of their time serving the city.
Part of that time was spent disregarding a 2018 advisory referendum in which the wheel tax was rejected by 57 percent of voters.
Good luck with that, folks. Council members who brush off the will of the people, hit them with more taxes and then approve pay raises for themselves don’t seem to fare so well come election time.
