Legislative Compensation: Too Hot to Handle?

by Karl Kurtz

At a session of NCSL’s Legislative Effective Committee meeting at the Fall Forum in Phoenix today, Minnesota Rep. Kathy Tingelstad introduced the topic of legislative compensation by saying that it’s all about making sure that we can attract good people to serve in the legislature.  She told a story of trying to recruit a bright young school board member from her community to run for the legislature.  After thinking it over, her potential recruit declined because she said that she couldn’t afford to do it.  The time commitment was too great for the amount of pay.

I presented an overview of legislator compensation across the states based on my estimates of how much legislators are paid.  My estimates include what the IRS would count as income: salary plus per diem (both session and interim) plus any unvouchered expense payments.  Click on the map to enlarge it and see estimated legislator compensation for each state.

I also presented data that show that on average legislator compensation has not significantly increased or decreased over the last 35 years, after correcting for inflation.

Alan Dolman, vice chair of the Washington Citizens’ Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials, talked about this panel’s work in setting executive, legislative and judicial salaries.  Washington is one of 20 states that have commissions to determine salaries, but the only one in which the commission determines compensation without review by the governor or legislature.  By state constitution, the only way to overturn the Washington commissions recommendations is through a citizen-initiated referendum.

[Learn more about the Washington commission below the jump.]

The Washington commission is made up of 16 members—nine randomly drawn from the rolls of registered voters (one for each congressional district) and seven members selected from 5 specific professions by the house speaker and senate president.  The salary-setting process occurs every other year from January to June.  The commission holds public hearings, conducts research and sets the salaries for nine statewide elected executives, the members of the legislature and all state judges.  The salaries take effect 90 days after the commission files its report, unless a citizen gathers enough signatures to force a public vote to repeal the salaries, which has never happened in the 20-year history of the commission.

Lorne Malkiewich, director of Nevada's Legislative Counsel Bureau, talked mostly about legislative staff compensation, but his advice on how to get support for compensation increases applies to legislator pay as well: do your homework on comparable pay, make sure they are justified, conduct reviews regularly so that increases are incremental, don't hide them and sell them to the press and the public.

Comments

[Doug]

Uh, did you mean to use the word "competition" in the title of this post, or "compensation?"

[Karl Kurtz]

Oops! The original title of this piece did indeed read, "Legislative Competition...." Freudian slip? Thanks, Doug for recognizing this. The title has been changed to reflect its original intent.