Commentary: Restoring the public’s trust

From NM Politics.net - by Johnny F. Luévano Jr - I think many folks recognize that career politicians are at the root of the distrust in government, and the most common solution is to impose term limits on our legislators at both the state and federal levels. I would agree and support this idea, but I also believe there other ways to approach this issue. This is what I would do:
* First, I propose eliminating any and all retirement plans for our elected officials at all levels of government. This would include eliminating any form of public payroll contribution matches and completely doing away with any sort of seniority buy-ins for government retirement plans. Of course, our elected officials would be free to pursue private retirement plans of their own with their earned wages.
* Next, I propose that we restructure the health-care plans for our legislators by establishing a baseline of care through a local military hospital, VA hospital or a local public clinic. These should be the only three health-care options available for our elected officials if they choose a government-subsidized health-care plan. Again, elected officials would be free to pursue any health-care plan of their own with no government assistance if they decided either of these options weren’t up to par to their health-care needs.
* My third idea would be to add a signed contractual agreement for a lifetime ban on government lobbying for anyone who is elected to public office through all levels of government.
* Finally, at the state level, I propose that any legislator who legally receives any form of a publicly funded taxpayer salary while performing his or her duties during the legislative session or while fulfilling legislative duties outside of the session should be required to choose between receiving his or her normal working salary or the legislator daily per-diem rate. At no time should a legislator concurrently receive both a publicly funded taxpayer salary and the legislator daily per-diem rate. Read Commentary

Commentary: Restoring the public’s trust