The way Sen. Rick Jones tells it, his latest brainstorm for shared sacrifice came during Gov. Rick Snyder’s recent budget presentation.
Somebody on Snyder’s staff suggested that one way to heal the state’s financial wounds was to get teachers to pay 20 percent of their health-care premiums.
“I heard that,” Jones told me Wednesday, “and I wondered what percentage I paid.”
The answer: 7.6.
The figure varies among legislators, but obviously it’s nowhere near 20 percent, which struck Jones as disingenuous.
So, the Grand Ledge Republican will introduce a bill that would raise the health-care contribution rate for all state legislators to 20 percent.
The odds it will actually happen?
“I’m pushing real hard,” Jones said. “A lot of senators feel the same way I do.”
Jones has already introduced Senate Bill 26 to end lifetime retirement health insurance for senators and representatives after only six years of service.
He calls that “an obscene benefit.”
Is Jones a grandstander? Absolutely. But the man has a knack for making you want to stand up and say, “Amen!”
