Pay hike proposed for state officials
OLYMPIA – Want a part-time job that pays $40,000 to $45,000, with a pension and low-cost health insurance?
Get elected.
That’s how much, in $36,311 base salary plus $90-a-day living-expense payments, taxpayers pay Washington’s 147 state lawmakers.
It’s not nearly enough, according to a citizens’ commission that spent the past two days hearing from politicians, many of whom said they and their successors deserve more money.
Between cost-of-living increases and “equity adjustments,” the commission voted overwhelmingly Wednesday night to boost the paychecks for the state’s elected officials – the governor, attorney general, treasurer and many judges, among others – by 9 percent to 19 percent over the next two years.
The proposal would amount to an extra $16,000 for Gov. Chris Gregoire, who now makes about $151,000 a year. The pay for Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson and Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland would rise from $108,000 a year to nearly $122,000. Rank-and-file lawmakers would go from $36,311 to $42,106.
“I think it’s time to be generous with these people,” said James Clark, a commission member from Seattle.
“How do we attract better people?” said Puyallup’s Donald Boggs. “Well, the better people may not even be applying for the job because it pays too little. … I think we need to step up to the plate this year.”
The commissioners want to be the most generous to Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, whose pay would jump 19 percent from about $79,000 a year to nearly $94,000.
The group plans to hold four hearings on the proposal, including one April 19th in Spokane. A final vote is slated for May 15th.
In two days of hearings in the capital, only one member of the public showed up to comment. And he was a former longtime lawmaker.
“The only negative reaction we’ve had has been from media, a little bit,” Shoreline’s Alan Doman told his fellow commissioners Wednesday. “I think we ought to do what we feel is the right thing to do, and then see if a reaction comes.”
The commission is made up of nine randomly picked voters, plus seven more people representing education, business, personnel management, law and labor. Among those members: Greenacres’ businessman Scott Baxter, now serving his third year.
Over two days, Baxter and his colleagues heard a steady stream of elected officials describe the demands of their jobs. Most said elected officials are far underpaid compared to what their private-sector – and even many public-sector – counterparts earn.
Sutherland, for example, said he loves his job, for which he plans to run again in 2008. But he noted that the agency he heads manages billions of dollars in state land. Many comparable jobs, he said, pay much more than the $108,000 he makes.
“I look at others and say ‘Gee whiz, guys, this isn’t quite right,’ ” he told the commission. “… There needs to be a significant adjustment.”
Low legislative pay is pushing good people out of politics, particularly young people with families, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown told the commission a day earlier.
Ritzville Republican Sen. Mark Schoesler – who stayed away from the proceedings – said it’s unseemly for lawmakers to be lobbying the commission for salary increases.
“Does anyone believe citizens sent us here to make lobbying for pay raises for legislators one of our first priorities?” he said.
“It’s really hard to say ‘pay us more,’ ” Sutherland, a fellow Republican, said in an interview. “I knew darned well what I was getting into when I started. But I think the public receives significant benefits from what we do.”
Gov. Gregoire sent her chief of staff, Tom Fitzsimmons, to testify. Fitzsimmons would not say whether Gregoire should get more money.
“I just know how hard she works,” he said. “And whatever you all decide she’s worthy of making, she earns every penny of it.”
Fitzsimmons noted, however, that the governor is calling for large pay increases for nurses, prison guards and comparable hard-to-fill jobs.
“The reaction has not been negative” among the public, he said.
Attorney General Rob McKenna noted that he runs the biggest law firm in the state, public or private, with more than 500 lawyers. He earns $137,268.
“I think the salary, frankly, is too low for the position,” he told the commission.
It agreed and suggested boosting his pay to nearly $152,000 within two years.
The only member of the public who showed up to comment during two days of hearings was Don Brazier, a former lawmaker, retired state regulator and unofficial legislative historian.
When Washington became a state in 1889, he said, lawmakers met for 60 days and were paid $5 a day. Workers at the time earned $1 to $2 a day, he said.
Forty years ago, Brazier – a young Yakima lawyer – was elected to the Legislature. It was very much a part-time job, he said, with legislative sessions held only every other year.
In 1970, however, Washington began holding annual sessions, which typically last several months. And while the pay’s based on part-time work, Brazier said, being a state lawmaker has now become nearly a full-time job. The phone rings constantly, year-round, and lawmakers are constantly asked to attend meetings. Say no to an invitation, he said, and you’ve made an enemy.
“Ladies and gentlemen, today – and I will argue this with anyone, any time, any place – the members of our Legislature, for what they are expected to do and the demands on their time – are grossly underpaid.”
Commissioner Katherine Wade-Easley was one of the few commissioners to voice concern about the cost of the increases.
“It’s great to be the good guy and give everyone 25 percent raises. I’d like a 25 percent raise myself,” she said at one point. “…We have to keep in mind that we’re representing Joe Schmoe and that the state has X amount of dollars to spend on this.”
Most states pay their lawmakers less. Idaho pays just $15,646 a year, plus $99 a day in living expenses. Oregon pays $16,284 plus $91 a day. Montana pays a total of $167 a day.
“The fact that other states are cheapskates doesn’t mean that we need to be cheap,” said Clark.