Is promising to give back salary tantamount to vote buying?
Last week I wrote about the passage of Milwaukee County’s 2010 budget, and at the time I couldn’t help but wonder if Supervisor Pat Jursik, who voted in favor of giving County employees an extra four furlough days next year – bringing the total number of furlough days for county employees to 12 – would give back the equivalent of 12 days worth of her pay, in order to share in the pain of those of her constituents who happen to be County employees. I wrote Supervisor Jursik an email to inquire as to her plans regarding a giveback of her salary, and here’s her response:
I will forward the equivalent of 12 days pay to Hunger Task Force and ear mark it for their work at the Farm and Fish Hatchery at the county grounds; There is an older case that ruled promising voters to give back part of your salary is tantamount to vote buying, to be safe, I give my salary to an organization that is helping the poor and running this important program which benefits our parks, zoos and those in need. I did this in 09 as well.
While I certainly appreciate the fact that Supervisor Jursik says she’s going to give the equivalent of 12 days of salary to charity, I can’t help but wonder about her assertion that promising to give back part of her salary would be tantamount to vote buying, considering the fact that County Executive Scott Walker made just such a promise when he first ran for County Executive. Personally, I’d like to see Supervisor Jursik give back 12 days of her salary to the County’s coffers, so that those funds can be put to good use.
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9 Responses to Is promising to give back salary tantamount to vote buying?
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I like Supv. Jursik. I emailed her before the county board meeting and she emailed me back right away and explained how and why she will be voting a certain way. She seems to respond to her constituents…which is nice. I’m satisfied with her donating 12 days of pay to charity. It’s more than others are doing.
As for your question…I don’t think it’s the same as buying votes…but I can see how it could be questioned.
Given Walker’s return of pay, this strikes me as strange Zach. And worth digging into further, possibly.
Yeah, it strikes me as strange as well. I’ve emailed Supervisor Jursik with some followup questions, so we’ll see what she says.
Hm…I’d never heard of this. Lemme see what I can dig up.
Senator Feingold always gives back his midterm raises and makes no secret of it.
Sebastian Raclaw, when running for county board, promised he would give back something like $15,000 (‘course he could afford it because he was intending to keep his full-time police detective job, too).
Let me know what you find out, Stacie, because something just doesn’t seem right about Jursik’s answer.
I’d actually be happier if both Jursik and Walker donated their salary to a toilet paper/restroom maintenance fund for the courthouse. The last two weeks have been particularly gross.
Yeah, I’ve been to the courthouse recently, and it’s not a pretty picture over there. As bad as the budget’s been to the DOC, at least we have TP in the bathrooms.
Zach, you probably missed the highlight of the week…on Wednesday, one of my colleagues reported that she saw a maintenance/custodial worker bludgeoning a rodent to death in the skywalk. No word on whether exterminators are in next year’s budget.
Yeah, unfortunately I missed that, but it sounds like it would have been a sight to see!