A Saskatchewan member of the legislative assembly takes home about $46,000 more than the average Saskatchewanian who pays the bill.

But taxpayers don’t need to shell out six-figure salaries to provincial politicians to have a functioning government.

The argument from politicians usually goes like this: For the government to attract the best and brightest people, taxpayers need to pay them higher-than-average salaries. And then those best and brightest people who are now politicians will solve all our problems and it’s happily ever after.

The data tells a different story.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation just released the Subnational Politician Pay Report, comparing the pay of provincial and state politicians to the outcomes they generate for taxpayers.

The bottom line: Provincial politicians are taking salaries about double the size of what their average American counterparts are paid while imposing higher tax rates and delivering less prosperity.

The median provincial politician in Canada earns about $113,637. In America it’s $45,002.

Saskatchewan MLAs earn a base salary of $113,432. Cabinet ministers take an extra $56,570 and Premier Scott Moe gets an extra $82,509. The average Saskatchewanian earns about $67,463.

Backbench MLAs received a $2,333 raise last year. Moe got $4,030. Base Saskatchewan MLA salaries are higher than salaries of other politicians in 44 states and three provinces.

Saskatchewanians pay a top combined marginal tax rate that’s higher than 46 American states and Saskatchewan’s GDP per capita is lower than 23 American states.

North Dakota pays its state representatives slightly more than $10,000 per year. North Dakotans are richer than Canadians in all provinces in GDP per capita terms.

Top-tier pay isn’t getting top-tier results for taxpayers. It’s time to try something new.

And here’s the reality: The Saskatchewan government is spending too much and the only way to tackle this problem is for provincial politicians to lead by example and cut their own pay.

Since becoming premier in 2018, Moe more than doubled Saskatchewan’s provincial debt. That’s because the government is continually spending beyond its revenues and borrowing the difference.

As a result of all that borrowing the government is now wasting more than $1 billion a year on debt interest payments. That’s more than $2.9 million per day wasted just paying the interest on the taxpayer credit card. That’s unsustainable.

That means the government needs to cut spending and a good place to start is in the bureaucracy. About 41 per cent of the government’s $22-billion budget is spent on salaries and benefits. Any serious attempt to cut the size of government and pay down the province’s debt needs to reduce the cost of the bureaucracy.

But that can’t happen if politicians won’t lead by example and reduce their own pay. It becomes much harder to make the case that the government needs to spend less if politician pay is left untouched.

And before you tear up about the plight of the poor politician who may have to subsist on less than a six-figure income, don’t forget about the generous benefits politicians get as well.

MLAs get a pension plan when they retire and if they leave their job or are voted out, they get paid out a generous transition allowance that cost taxpayers $2.7 million after the last election.

And if politicians complain about their lower salaries and the same workload, they are free to do less, cut spending in the budget and take more non-taxpayer-funded holidays.

Reducing provincial politician pay could also save taxpayers money at lower levels of government. The mayors of Saskatoon or Regina, who each earn around $170,000 a year, would have a much harder time justifying their salaries when the average MLA makes tens of thousands of dollars less.

Taxpayers don’t need to shell out six-figure salaries to provincial politicians to get results. In fact, reducing politician pay is the only way to kickstart the cost-cutting exercise the Saskatchewan government so dearly needs.