H.4844 would place on the 2016 General Election ballot an advisory question asking if the legislative pay should be raised to $35,000 or $50,000 (current pay is $10,400).
In the first place, this would be a very unfair and leading question. The only options are both huge increases, and there is no selection for citizens who would like the pay to stay the same or even be decreased. If those particular citizens chose to participate in the question, they would likely pick the smaller amount which is still a substantial increase. This, in turn, would be used as justification by the General Assembly to nearly triple their own pay.
More importantly, legislating was never intended by our founders to be a full-time job. Instead of spending taxpayer money that could go to fixing our crumbling roads on a huge raise for a largely-dysfunctional General Assembly, we should shorten the session and give our elected officials more time to work private-sector jobs.