Lawmakers likely to get raise in 2005
By Bruce Dunford
Associated Press
The state's Legislative Salary Commission, a panel named by the governor once every eight years, voted yesterday to recommend that pay for members of the House and Senate be increased every two years, based on the growth rate in the average annual wages in Hawai'i.
The increase, starting in 2005, would be the first pay raise for the 25 senators and 51 representatives since 1987, when their pay was set at $32,000 with an additional $5,000 each for the Senate president and House speaker.
Under the state constitution, lawmakers, before the 2003 session ends May 1, would need to approve a concurrent House and Senate resolution to reject the latest commission's recommendation, or Gov. Linda Lingle could reject it. Otherwise, the recommendation goes into effect.
Because it won't take effect until 2005, only 13 members of the Senate who are now serving four-year terms would get the higher pay without first having to be re-elected. House members all serve two-year terms.
Lawmakers now make $32,000 a year. Under the proposal, pay for lawmakers in office in 2005 would go to $34,200, based on the average annual growth rate in the average annual wages over the previous seven years.
It's estimated the salaries would climb to $35,900 in 2007, $37,600 in 2009 and $39,200 in 2011 at which time the next salary commission would be convened. The annual growth based on the average annual wages would be capped at 2.5 percent.
In a separate motion yesterday, the commission voted to recommend the additional pay for House speaker and Senate president increase from $5,000 to $7,500, effective in 2005, putting the salaries for those offices at about $46,700.
Commission Chairman Warren Daspit said the commission wanted to establish a system linking the pay of legislators to the growth in wages in the community.
"That's why we moved to a two-year indexing process because we feel that'll be helpful in terms of keeping the Legislature's salaries somewhat in line with what goes on in the regular marketplace," he said.
