POLITICS: BALLOT ISSUE WOULD REVISE PAY SYSTEM

The Missouri Legislature would have more freedom in setting their own salaries and those of judges and statewide elected officials under a constitutional amendment that is on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Constitutional Amendment No. 3, put on the ballot by lawmakers, would revise a process that has been in place since 1994 when voters approved a constitutional amendment establishing a statewide pay commission.

A simple majority is needed for passage.

State Sen. Wayne Goode, D-St. Louis, hopes the measure passes. He said it would restore budget powers to the Legislature that have been restricted by a Supreme Court ruling last year. The court ruled that lawmakers must treat everyone in the schedule of pay recommendations equally.

If one office gets 100 percent of the recommended salary, so must everyone else, the court said.

But if voters approve the November ballot measure, lawmakers will be able to deal with each salary recommendation separately, Goode said.

Lawmakers, he said, could give different increases to associate circuit judges than circuit judges, for example.

It also would eliminate the current process in which the pay recommendations go into effect automatically unless rejected by lawmakers within the first month of the legislative session.

In addition, the constitutional amendment would cancel the commission's authority to recommend mileage and expense reimbursements for elected officials. That would be left entirely to lawmakers.

The Missouri Citizens' Commission on Compensation of Elected Officials is required to review salaries for everyone from the state's governor to trial judges and draw up a pay plan every two years.

The commission recommends salaries for the six statewide officeholders, the 197 members of the state House and Senate, and 361 judges ranging from associate circuit judges to Supreme Court judges. It adds up to 584 people whose current salaries total $45.7 million.

But the Legislature largely has ignored the recommendations and criticized the process that implements the pay recommendations unless rejected by lawmakers within the first month of the legislative session.

Area lawmakers like state Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, and state Rep. Patrick Naeger, R-Perryville, would like to eliminate the pay commission.

The November ballot measure is a step in the right direction, but it doesn't go far enough, Kinder said.

The Republican state senator said he plans to once again co-sponsor legislation that would ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would abolish the pay commission.

"It really is sort of a pathetic charade," Kinder said. The majority of state senators, he said, believe it should be scrapped.

The pay commission was created with the idea of taking politics out of the salary decisions. But it hasn't happened, he said.

"It is just a bad mistake that state government made," Kinder said.

Naeger said the Legislature has the responsibility to set salaries and appropriate money.

The compensation commission, whose members serve four-year terms, developed pay plans in 1996 and 1998. The commission, with new members this year, is at work on its third pay plan.

The 20-member commission is holding five public hearings around the state. It has held hearings in Kirksville and St. Louis, and has scheduled hearings in Springfield, Cape Girardeau and Kansas City.

A hearing will be held at 7 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau.

In past years, few people have attended the hearings to voice their views on state salaries. A hearing in Cape Girardeau two years ago drew only four people and only two of them spoke up.

This year, no one showed up for the Kirksville hearing.

"It is a waste of taxpayer time and money," Naeger said. "It is a chaotic mess."

Mark Reading, assistant budget director for the state, assists the commission. Reading said the commission will cost the state about $25,000 this year, primarily for meals, lodging and transportation for commission members. Commissioners don't receive a salary.

Goode said the commission doesn't need to recommend any pay increases. The veteran state senator likes the way the Legislature has been handling pay raises, giving elected officials the same percentage raises as other state workers.

"They don't need to recommend any special increases over and above that," he said.