On Speaker Emeritus

By Kleinheider Posted on January 15, 2009 at 10:29 am

As we know, plans are in the works to give now Rep. Jimmy Naifeh the title of Speaker Emeritus.

Being a new office, the position could be simply ceremonial as Senator John Wilder’s was or it could be something more. Let’s look at another state and their experience with the office.

In Pennsylvania:

In a move that demonstrates the ever-resilient nature of John Perzel, Republican leaders in the State House have voted to name him Speaker Emeritus, and give him extra staff and leadership office space.

This means that Perzel has, depending on his wishes, either a graceful position from which to exit the Pennsylvania House for a much more lucrative private sector career, or a platform from which to launch another bid for a third term as Speaker.

This should be an easy agreement to sell to rank and file Republican members, because it does not require any incumbent Republican leader to be bumped out of his position, nor does it require any Republican caucus committee chair to be removed.

Again from Pennsylvania:

Mr. Perzel’s new salary of $73,000 is the same as rank-and-file House members, Mr. Miskin said. But it is considerably less than the $112,000 he received last year as speaker. Mr. Perzel will have a slightly larger staff of three or four people, compared with the normal rank-and-file lawmaker’s staff of one or two, Mr. Miskin said.

But he insisted that’s fair because, as speaker emeritus, Mr. Perzel will be on a par with chairmen of standing House committees, such as appropriations, finance and others, who have staffs of up to four aides.

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Tags: Jimmy Naifeh, Lurleen Wallace, Speaker Emeritus