Panel OKs the first salary increases for top elected officials in six years.
Sacramento Bee
California’s governor and other top elected officials received pay increases ranging from $23,625 to $31,500 per year Friday, the first such salary hikes in six years.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a multimillionaire, does not accept state pay — but if he ever changes his mind, the hike would boost his salary from $175,000 to $206,500 per year.
The pay increases, scheduled to take effect Dec. 4, were approved by a 4-0 vote of an independent citizens panel created by voter approval of Proposition 112 in 1990.
Besides the governor, 18 percent hikes will be given to the lieutenant governor, attorney general, controller, treasurer, secretary of state, superintendent of public instruction, insurance commissioner and members of the state Board of Equalization.
Legislators will receive a much smaller boost, 2 percent, partly because the compensation panel took into consideration a 12 percent salary increase it gave lawmakers last year.
Friday’s action boosts legislative salaries from $110,880 to $113,097, tops in the nation by more than $30,000 per year.
Commission members, all of them appointed by former Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, said the pay hikes roughly reflect cost-of-living increases.
Inflation totaled 21.3 percent during a six-year period beginning in April 2000, shortly before constitutional officers received their last pay hike, according to Howard Roth, chief economist for the Department of Finance.
Ted Costa, leader of People’s Advocate, a Sacramento watchdog group, said the salary increases send the wrong message to voters and will exacerbate low turnout in the November election.
“If they’re true leaders, they should get the same increases the rest of the people get,” Costa said. “Their increase is more than the total salaries of many secretaries, clerks and Wal-Mart workers — it can buy you a lot of mashed potatoes.”
Collectively, the pay hikes will cost taxpayers about $570,000 per year, according to H.D. Palmer, Department of Finance spokesman.
Larry Gotlieb, acting commission chairman, said consideration should be given to the complexity of running a government of nearly 37 million people and to the physical and mental stress placed on constitutional officers.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s salary of $148,750, while exceeded by only two other state attorneys general, is lower than those of at least 10 city or county district attorneys in California, according to a commission report.
Lockyer’s current salary will be $7,000 less than that of his chief deputy as of July 1. The disparity will climb to more than $15,000 per year within a few months, according to a Department of Justice letter submitted to the commission.
“(A) brand-new person out of law school, who may not even know the difference between an interrogatory and a deposition, will earn as much as, and in many cases more than, the attorney general of this state,” Gotlieb said.
Lockyer, who is running for treasurer, plans to accept the higher attorney general pay for the one month it will be available before his term ends.
“He supported it,” said Tom Dresslar, a Lockyer spokesman. “It’s not only appropriate, it’s overdue.”
California, unlike many states, does not provide an official state-paid residence or aircraft for the governor, Gotlieb said.
“I think it’s demeaning for a state of this size to have a governor who has to get to the airport and hope he gets a boarding pass that has an ‘A’ designation on it, like the rest of us,” Gotlieb said.
Darrel Ng, a Schwarzenegger spokesman, said the governor has no intention of accepting the new $206,500 salary.
“The governor will continue serving the people of California without taking a salary,” Ng said.
State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who will oppose Schwarzenegger in the November election, said through a spokesman that if elected governor he will not accept the $31,500 pay boost.
Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said that having an independent board set elected officials’ salaries means that nobody is held accountable.
“It’s huge to see this kind of money handed out,” he said. “And there’s no connection between the money and the performance of the person in office.”
Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, said, “It’s not like any of these characters really need the money. I think it’s a slap in the face to voters.”
But Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento, said most people understand that an 18 percent increase after six years without a pay boost is not excessive.
Costs of campaigns are eliminating many good people from becoming candidates, Hodson said.
“Let’s not add to that by making holding public office a financial hardship,” he said.
California’s new legislative salary of $113,097, though leading the nation, pales in comparison to salaries of many other public officials throughout California, records show.
County supervisors in Los Angeles, Alameda, San Diego, Santa Clara and Orange counties, for example, will continue to earn more than state lawmakers even after Friday’s hikes take effect.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez declined to comment on the commission vote.
Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata could not be reached.
Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman said he accepts the panel’s decision but
noted that legislators had no role in it.
“People who signed up for this job knew the salaries were subject to this commission, so that’s the rules,” he said.
Nineteen legislators did not accept last year’s pay increase or have asked to receive less than full salary. They include Assemblymen Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, and Alan Nakanishi, R-Lodi.
Besides their annual pay, lawmakers receive $153 per day during the legislative session to offset their living expenses in Sacramento.
Three Assembly members, all Sacramento-area residents, do not accept per diem: Niello; Dave Jones, D-Sacramento; and Lois Wolk, D-Davis.
Since 1990, newly elected legislators have been ineligible for state retirement benefits.
The governor and other constitutional officers, however, qualify for pensions.
