Legislator from Marana pushes bill to protect lawmakers' jobs

PHOENIX — Saying there aren’t enough regular people in the Legislature, a newly elected lawmaker wants to remove what he says is an impediment: the fear of losing their regular job.

Rep. Cory McGarr, R-Marana, is proposing that businesses be forced to give employees unpaid time off so they can come to the Capitol and help make laws.

But his HB 2545 is getting some pushback from other Republicans who question exactly how businesses are supposed to keep operating when what could be a key employee is at the Capitol. And sessions have recently been lasting six months — plus special meetings for the rest of the year.

McGarr, however, is undeterred.

“It’s supposed to be a citizen Legislature,” he told colleagues, what with lawmakers in session only part of the year.

“And they go back to their normal life and they live under the laws in which they created,” McGarr continued. “This is an attempt at making it so the average, every-day person can run.”

That, he said, is not the case now.

Part of it is the $24,000 annual salary. Lawmakers have no control over that, with changes having to be approved by voters.

The last time they agreed to an increase was in 1998. And McGarr conceded he doesn’t see any groundswell of support to change that.

That leaves mostly lawmakers who don’t have to live off that salary and don’t have to worry about being away from work, he said. That includes lawyers business owners and those who are independently wealthy, all of whom are not financially dependent on having a job they can return to each year when the session ends, McGarr said.

“You have a certain type of people who are able to serve here,” he said. “The normal everyday average person can’t.”

And McGarr said it would be only a small burden on an employer, no different than when someone is called for jury duty.

But Rep. Kevin Payne, R-Peoria, said he sees it from a different perspective.

“While you’re gone at the Legislature for six, eight months, or whatever it might be, they’ve got nobody to do your job,” he said. “I think this is a huge burden on the employer.”

Nor did he believe that a company could just hire someone else to fill in.

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Payne has some perspective.

He is self employed, running a barbecue food truck. And Payne said he’s not willing to give up his “secret recipe” to just anyone.

In his case, Payne has his son. But others may not have that luxury.

McGarr’s proposal might work with certain large employers, said Rep. John Gillette, R-Kingman. But he said a company with only one or two employees might be in a position where the legislator “is the key cog in that small shop, making things go.”

For example, he said, the aerospace, arms and defense firm of Lockheed Martin would have no problem replacing a master machinist who went off to the Capitol for part of the year.

“But let’s say they work for Kingman Small Metal Shop and they make widgets for your local HVAC guy,” Gillette said. “If that guy goes, that business is essentially shut down.”

Gillette also said he isn’t buying McGarr’s comparison of being gone to serve in the Legislature with serving on a jury.

“One is voluntary,” he said. “One is not.”

But Rep. Jennifer Longdon, D-Phoenix, said she sees merit in what McGarr is proposing.

“I do want to make sure that we’re getting representation by everyone in our state, by teachers and folks who work in jobs that rely on employers to come back, rather than to have a spouse who can afford for them to work (at the Capitol) or a pension or something like that,” she said.

Rep. Tim Dunn, R-Yuma, said there’s another factor at work in terms of who can serve.

He said those who live in the Phoenix area can probably make arrangements to work part-time at their jobs and not leave an employer high and dry. But he said the situation is different for people from rural areas who are basically stuck at the Capitol for much of the week.

McGarr’s measure cleared the House Government Committee earlier this week on an 8-1 vote.

But some supporters like Payne and Gillette said they won’t back it when it goes next to the House floor unless it it amended to exempt small employers, perhaps those with 50 or fewer workers.