There is nothing a taxpayer likes better than limiting the benefits politicians take home with them when they offer their services to the people.

Saturday, August 12, 2000

There is nothing a taxpayer likes better than limiting the benefits politicians take home with them when they offer their services to the people.

After all, it is our money that they are earning and we have to watch where it goes. That means we should be able to control the purse strings.

Sometimes frugality is the right decision.

Not this time.

The proposal before Ironton City Council that city voters should be allowed to set the mayor’s salary might sound good on the surface. The city has lost more than 1,000 jobs this year after all.

But this is a classic case of you get what you pay for.

As tempting as it might be to get a bargain-basement mayor, that is not what is best for the city or its future.

A professional mayor comes with business experience or some other management expertise. He or she would have experience with budgets, personnel, managing limited resources and all the other job requirements that go along with the chief executive spot.

The reality is that people who have those skills either have to leave full-time jobs or take a leave of absence to serve. To do that, they will want to be able to support their families without having to give up their home or car.

Without a competitive salary, qualified candidates for the position of mayor will not even throw their hats into the ring. They will not be able to afford the pay cut.

That will leave a rather meager field from which Ironton residents can choose.

The mayor’s job is not merely window dressing for the city, There is real work that is done in that office and some pretty important decisions are made there.

Ironton needs to stop thinking about how to cut to deal with the budget deficit and to start figuring out how to bring jobs back to the city.

Cutting the mayor’s salary is only a Band-Aid. We need a "progress transplant."

And you cannot do that with a red pen and anything less than the best people at the helm.