EDMONTON: The all-party Members' Services Committee met this morning for the first time since August 7, 2001, and did not reverse the 10% salary increase which MLAs voted themselves in August. The increase in MLA severance pay - to three months' salary for every year in office - has also been left in place.

The Committee did not respond to a request from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) to reverse the large increases passed in August, only five months after the provincial election in March.

"The MLAs failed to correct the mistake they made in August, when they took extra tax dollars for themselves without any public consultation or input," stated CTF-Alberta director John Carpay.

"Mistakes do not magically go away with the passage of time. Mistakes go away when they are corrected," added Carpay.

The Committee this morning allocated $4.2 million annually for MLA severance pay. Alberta taxpayers will be on the hook for $16 million to $18 million in total severance pay, if all 83 MLAs were to resign or be defeated in 2005.

Alberta MLAs now earn the taxable equivalent of $76,250, putting them in the top 8% of income earners, and making them the third-best paid provincial politicians in Canada, after politicians in Ontario and Quebec.

Prior to August 7, MLAs earned the taxable equivalent of $69,500, in the top 10% of income earners.