Walz returns congressional raise, again

Congress members will get a $4,700 increase as part of a yearly cost-of-living adjustment at the start of the year. The cost to taxpayers? About $2.5 million. But Rep. Tim Walz, DFL, will not be getting a raise: He’s returning it to the taxpayers.

Bluestem Prairie reports that each year Walz has to send a letter to the U.S. Treasury to turn down the automatic raise in pay, including last year’s which he already declined. Spokester Meredith Salsbery told Bluestem Prairie, “[He] has to keep declining [the last raise]. We’ll send Treasury a letter that will deduct an amount equal to this year’s [cost-of-living adjustment] and last year’s COLA from each paycheck.”

Last year, Walz said he would not accept a pay increase until the federal budget is balanced. “I am committed to fiscal responsibility and to changing the way Washington works,” he said in January. “The reinstatement of pay-as-you-go budgeting has finally put this country back on the right track towards a balanced budget, but until we reach that milestone I will refuse any pay increase.”