Parliament is no place for salaries – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

The governor of the Yaroslavl region, Mikhail Evraev, on Thursday suggested that the deputies of the regional duma think about reducing the excessive, in his opinion, the number of lawmakers working on a professional basis. Now 38 out of 50 deputies of the Legislative Assembly receive a salary. Mr. Evraev cited as an example, in particular, the Belgorod Regional Duma, where only five out of 50 deputies work on a professional basis. The Yaroslavl Regional Duma believes that the governor’s initiative will primarily hit the “already impoverished” opposition. And the expert is sure that this will reduce the independence of the deputy corps as a whole.

The governor of the Yaroslavl region, Mikhail Evraev, at a meeting of the regional duma on December 15, unexpectedly touched upon the topic of too large, in his opinion, the number of deputies receiving a salary. “We have a deputies with you – 50 people, and 38 – on a paid basis. I would suggest that we also think seriously about this topic and change this ratio. I also took and analyzed. Belgorod region: 50 people – the number of deputies, on a paid basis – five people. We have 38, mind you. Kaluga region – 40 people, on a paid basis – three people. Oryol region – 50 people, on a paid basis – 13 people, ”he explained his idea with specific examples.

According to Mr. Evraev, “there is nowhere else like ours.” “Do you understand? Therefore, when we are talking about putting things in order, about optimization, let’s start with ourselves. It seems to me that this will be fair and honest in relation to the residents of the Yaroslavl region,” the governor emphasized.

The number of deputies working on a professional basis is established by regional legislation. In the Yaroslavl region, this can currently be any number up to 50.

A Kommersant source in the regional Duma notes that if the number of professional deputies is reduced, “nothing will change for the residents of the region, and it will become easier for the governor to make decisions.”

“I think this will be discussed from the next convocation (the next elections to the regional Duma should take place in 2023.— “b”) and some kind of compromise will be considered – maybe only the leaders will be offered to stay on a permanent basis, ”the interlocutor of Kommersant suggested. The main losses, according to him, “will be incurred by the already impoverished opposition, because the deputies support their party organizations from this salary.”

Political scientist Alexander Kynev calls the examples cited by Mikhail Evraev “deviant”: “Referring to bad experience is a negative practice. The Yaroslavl region has always been distinguished by fairly developed democratic traditions, and this has always been its dignity. The number of deputies working on a full-time basis is an element of the independence of the deputy corps, the expert is sure: “This is apparently inconvenient for the authorities, they want a more dependent deputy corps. And if the deputy does not receive a salary, he will work somewhere else, and he will not have time to engage in lawmaking.” On average in Russia, according to Mr. Kynev, the number of professional deputies in the legislative assemblies of the regions is approximately 34%.

In November, Kommersant wrote about plans to reduce the number of deputies in the Yaroslavl Regional Duma. A Kommersant source in the legislature then said that amendments to the region’s charter were being prepared, according to which the number of deputies would be reduced by 8% to 46 people. It is also planned to significantly reduce the number of deputies elected on party lists: at the moment, the option with 34 single-mandate members and 12 list members is being discussed. In the current convocation of the regional Duma, 25 deputies were elected by the proportional system, 25 by the majority system.

Alexander Tikhonov, Yaroslavl