I would like to dispel two myths about state legislators. Certainly we all have many things to criticize our legislators over, but our criticism should at least be fair and these two myths crop up again and again.

The first is that our legislators don't work hard, an assertion I know to be completely false. The specific fellow I work for left his house at 6:00am this morning to travel to his office. He is scheduled to be there until 9:00 tonight. This is on a State and National holiday.

The second is even more prevalent, the notion that our legislators are overpaid. I believe that currently Washington Legislators make somewhere in the neighborhood of $32,000 per year. Their total compensation also includes expense moneys with which to maintain a local office, and per diem while they are in Olympia. Both of these amounts have been cut over the past couple of years. For this $32,000 they are expected by their constituents to work every day in Olympia while the legislature is in session, and attend meetings in their local districts everyday it is not. The legislature is looked upon as a part time job, but I don't know of a single good legislator who does not work it a good deal more than a full time job.

I must say that I find it rather offensive when people complain to me about the hundreds of thousands of supposed dollars our legislators make each year, when in fact the truth is that their salaries are so low as to make it extremely difficult to make ends meet.

It seems to me that instead of clamoring for our legislators to make even less, constituencies should be clamoring to see to it that their legislators are paid better. We cannot get the very best people of our state to serve as legislators if we are unwilling to fairly compensate their efforts.