Recommended pay raises for legislators called fair
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By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Lawmakers appear headed toward a pay raise in a couple of years, following recommendations approved yesterday by the Legislative Salary Commission.
The Legislative Salary Commission recommends: • Raising salary of state legislators from $32,000 to $34,200 in 2005. • Raising the salaries based on the growth rate of annual average wages in 2007, 2009 and 2011, but the raises would be capped at 2.5 percent. The most legislators could earn by 2011 is $40,500. • Raising the differential for the Speaker of the House and the Senate President from $5,000 to $7,500.
Under the state constitution, the recommendations will become effective unless House and Senate lawmakers approve a concurrent resolution rejecting it before the Legislature adjourns May 1. The governor may also reject the plan by sending a message of disapproval to the Legislature before the session ends.
Salary recommendations
But Gov. Linda Lingle and legislative leaders say they have no problem with the salary increase.
Lawmakers have not received a salary increase since 1993. The Legislature in 1995 rejected salary increases recommended by the 1994 Legislative Salary Commission.
Lingle called the commission's recommendations yesterday "a very fair proposal" and added: "I don't understand why the legislators turned down their increase last time."
"I think there's always a balancing act when you're talking about legislators, and that is, do you want a part-time Legislature or do you want a full-time Legislature," she said. "But regardless of if it's full- or part-time, I think the worst possible situation is to have politicians who are in desperate financial situation and struggling to make it. I think that sets up a very bad situation."
House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Hts., Palolo, Wilhemina Rise), said lawmakers deserve a raise. "It's a slight increase to me, and I think with the hours that the members of the House and Senate put in, it's well deserving at this time," he said.
Say didn't think it would be a controversial decision when most public workers are being told there is no money for pay raises, saying that the increases would take effect in 2005, after the next election.
Senate President Robert Bunda, D-22nd (North Shore, Wahiawa), said he hadn't polled senators about the pay increases, but said lawmakers deserves raises, especially given the long hours they work.
"The public might react bad when you say everybody else is not getting a raise and the economy is not going well and look at the Legislature, they're getting a raise," Bunda said. "But I guess we're looking beyond us. I certainly wouldn't benefit from this. There's a lot of us who are not going to be here. Looking down the road, you need to consider the new legislators will be putting in some long hours and having to sacrifice their family time."
The salary commission, which is convened every eight years, is recommending raising lawmakers' current $32,000 salary by 6.7 percent to $34,200 in 2005. The state's 76 lawmakers would also receive an increase based on the growth rate of annual average wages in 2007, 2009 and 2011. The annual growth based on the average annual wages would be capped at 2.5 percent, which means the most lawmakers can make by 2011 is $40,500.
The commission also recommended the $5,000 salary differential for the House Speaker and the Senate President be hiked to $7,500.
Commission Chairman Warren Daspit said the commission looked at other state legislatures and reviewed economic and wage indexes. According to the commission, Hawai'i's average annual wages increased by 17.7 percent from $26,544 in 1993 to $31,241 in 2001.
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
