|
||||||||
|
NEWS RELEASEDELAWARE GOP: ANTI-PAY RAISE WEB SITE SET UPPosted: Jan. 11, 2005 Republican State Committee Executive Director David A. Crossan announced today the launch of RejectTheRaise.com. The site is designed to educate Delawareans about the proposed pay hikes for Ruth Ann Minner, John Carney, and other elected officials. RejectTheRaise.com is also designed to allow Delawareans to sign a petition urging elected officials to reject these raises. These proposed pay raises have been called “outrageous” by Republican Sen. Colin Bonini and have angered Delawareans across the state. “We have heard from countless Delawareans who support Sen. Bonini and Sen. Charles Copeland’s call to reject these ridiculous pay increases,” Crossan said. “We launched RejectTheRaise.com as a central location to gather news about the Minner/Carney pay hike and sign a petition letting their elected officials know they are enraged by these pay raises.” “Even after the commission was forced to bring these recommended raises within the bounds of the law, Delawareans believe it is still too much.” Last week, the Compensation Commission, which is made up mostly of Ruth Ann Minner campaign contributors, revised their recommendations after Republican Attorney General Jane Brady handed down an opinion that raises exceeding 20 percent, such as the 56 percent proposed raise for John Carney, were illegal. Attorney General Brady also noted that without legislative action, Ruth Ann Minner could not receive her pay hike, yet the commission held firm on Minner’s raise and they recommendation that the legislature should take action to allow Minner to receive the $51,000 raise. “We continue to hear from people who are disgusted that Minner and Carney would take these kinds of raises while other priorities such as our prisons, police, and schools seem to be ignored by the Minner/Carney administration. Not to mention the fact that the rest of the state’s employees have enjoyed only 2 to 3 percent raises, but politicians like John Carney are now going to get 13 percent..” RejectTheRaise.com features the history of the proposed political pay hikes, charts outlining the past ten years of pay raises for the governor and lieutenant governor, and the opportunity to sign a petition urging elected officials to reject the raise. Crossan said the electronic petition would be presented to legislators in Dover, encouraging them to pass a joint resolution to reject the proposed pay raises. “There is precedent for this action,” Crossan said. “In 1993, the General Assembly passed a joint resolution to reject the Compensation Commission’s recommendations – we agree with Sen. Bonini, Sen. Copeland, and the countless other Delawareans who believe it is time for history to repeat itself.” If the General Assembly does not act, the proposed pay raises ranging from 9 to nearly 20 percent will automatically go into effect on February 1. ### |
|||||||
