Lawmakers turn down raises for themselves and gov
This comes as no surprise, but lawmakers today officially rejected salary increases.
A House of Delegates committee unanimously voted down the recommendations of two independent commissions that called for moderate pay raises in about three years.
Most of the state lawmakers make $43,500 yearly; the House speaker and Senate president earn $56,500 each. The governor’s salary is $150,000, and the lieutenant governor’s is $125,000. The commissions meet only once every four years, meaning that the salaries of those elected officials are to remain the same until 2015. That will make for eight years without raises.
General Assembly Commission Chairman Sean W. Glynn said the recommendation for small pay increases for lawmakers reflected a desire to be “sensitive” by balancing current issues, such as pay freezes for state workers, with the infrequent salary reviews.
However, Gov. Martin O’Malley and the two legislative leaders quickly declared they weren’t interested in pay raises.
Comments
Could the fact that this is an election year have anything to do with it?
Posted by: Tony | February 4, 2010 5:17 PM
Good thing...
Posted by: NotableM | February 4, 2010 5:26 PM
Glad to see the elected officials (who are state employees exempted from the furloughs) are feeling my pain. I have been given pay cuts for the last 3 years, and the last pay raise I received was a 2% COLA with a mandatory 1% increase in my pension contribution. I agree that raises for the elected state employees should be tied to all state employee raises. Now ,if we could just address the disparity between those who get furloughs and those who are exempt, we might be heading in the right direction.
(From Julie: While lawmakers are exempted from furloughs, they have been "taking them" in the form of forfeiting pay for an equal, and sometimes greater, number of days.)
Posted by: dll1961 | February 5, 2010 8:54 AM