ATTEMPT TO DO AWAY WITH STATE PAY PANEL CONTINUES

Missouri voters will get the chance to abolish the state pay commission in November 2000 if Rep. Marilyn Williams has her way.

The Stoddard County Democrat is sponsoring House Joint Resolution 21, which seeks voter approval of a constitutional amendment to disband the commission that Missourians approved in 1994.

It would take action by both the House and Senate to get the issue on the ballot.

A Senate committee has passed a similar measure, sponsored by Sen. Wayne Goode, D-Normandy. Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, also is backing the bill.

"People are disgusted with it," Kinder said of the pay commission.

Kinder said the early vote out of committee argues well for getting the measure to the full Senate for action.

He predicted most Republican lawmakers would back the effort to abolish the commission.

Voters approved a constitutional amendment in November 1994 that established the Missouri Citizens' Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials. The system has been mired in controversy ever since the commission first recommended pay raises for lawmakers, judges and the lieutenant governor in late 1996.

The Legislature rejected the pay plan in 1997, but a trial judge ruled last December that lawmakers incorrectly rejected the pay plan so those pay raises should be in effect. The Missouri Supreme Court will decide the question.

Meanwhile, the House and Senate failed to reach agreement last month on a measure to reject the pay commission's latest recommendations for pay raises for judges and the lieutenant governor. That pay plan was unveiled last December.

As a result of the legislative deadlock, the latest pay plan is on the books, subject to later action by the Legislature on appropriating funds for the raises.

The system was designed to take politics out of the pay raises. But Williams said it hasn't worked.

"A lot of my constituents don't want the pay set by a group of individuals other than lawmakers," she said.

Williams said her Southeast Missouri constituents believe the salary responsibility should rest with lawmakers.

Williams said she too is frustrated with the system.

All of Southeast Missouri's House members, both Republican and Democrats, voted to reject the pay plan last month.

But the Senate refused to approve the House measure. An amended Senate measure was rejected by the House.