I have had this idea for a while, but I was recently reminded of it by Barry Moltz’ post entitled Should Politicians' Salaries Be Based on Their Performance? In a sense I think the answer should be, “Yes,” but not in the way Barry intended it.

My proposal would be to pay legislators .1 percent of the reductions they make in the Texas budget. For example, from 2009 to 2010 the legislature cut spending $3.6 billion dollars. Now .1 percent of $3.6 billion is $36 million. As there are 181 members of the Texas Legislature (150 house, 31 senate) this would work out to slightly less than $200,000 each, not a bad chunk of change.