Andrew Roth runs the numbers:
First, Senators make a base salary of $167,100. Assuming a person joined the Senate at age 44 and stayed for two terms, and adjusted for 2% inflation with a 2.7% discount rate (10-year treasury), the net present value would be ~$1.9 million.But membership in the Senate carries more than just a salary. After two terms in the upper chamber, a retiring Senator can become a well-paid lobbyist. Assuming a very conservative base salary (in today’s numbers) of $318,362, a Senator-turned-lobbyist could make ~$4.5 million over another 12 years.
But that’s not all, Senators are given a lifetime pension starting at age 62. The average annual pension is currently $60,972. If payments started in 18 years and continued until death at 84, the total amount received would be ~$1.8 million.
If you discount everything back to today, the net present value of the Senate seat would be ~$6.2 million.
Corrupt as he was, Blagojevich wasn’t driving a very hard bargain.
