It seems the Alabama Legislature has placed voters in yet another conundrum. It is one of those, “danged if you do and danged if you don’t” amendments.

If voters approve Amendment 8, it will roll back a portion of the exorbitant 61 percent pay raise they voted themselves in 2007. On the surface, that sounds like a good thing, and it is — if you believe they are worth the median household income of hard working Alabama families.

Personally, I fail to see how they can lay claim to being worth half that seeing as how they are famously known as the “do nothing legislature.” This appears to be a sneaky way of getting voter approval of an enormous pay increase designed to squelch the grumbling of their constituents.

Too bad they do not use such ingenuity to solve some of the nagging fiscal, unemployment and dependency problems of the state.

Responding to the kickback on the shameful 61 percent pay increase they voted for themselves, they concocted this egregious compromise. It will assure them a hefty pay raise and obtain voter approval for it.

The other option of voting no on the amendment allows them to keep the 61 percent they voted themselves originally. Odds are voters will choose to scale back their pay by approving Amendment 8, a brilliantly sneaky and self-serving political maneuver.

Do you think that a legislature that can’t be trusted to hold their pay to a reasonable amount for part time work should be rewarded with full time pay? That is the issue here. They want full time wages for part time work.

The legislature dodges almost every issue that requires a tough decision, except their pay increases. They simply want to show up in Montgomery occasionally, make a big show of doing something and reap the median household income of hard working Alabama families for it. Something sounds terribly wrong with this scenario to me.

In my opinion, we do not need to pay for a full time Legislature, actually we have enough problems as it is.

However, given the choices left the voters of actually no choices is disrespectful to taxpayers. The only salvation, if there is any, is if the Democrats were still in power, we wouldn’t even have this choice of no choice. They would still be drawing their 61 percent raise and increasing it anytime they wanted. It is “danged if we do and danged if we don’t.”

Welcome to Alabama political shenanigans.