State pay panel to meet in Cape

The politically sensitive question of how much to pay lawmakers, judges and statewide elected officials will be up for discussion Monday in Cape Girardeau at a public hearing of the Citizens Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials.

The 22-member panel, revitalized by overwhelming voter approval of Amendment 7 on Nov. 7, must decide by Friday if it wants to recommend any changes in salaries for those officials, who have not received a raise for six years.

For two hours, beginning at 3 p.m., the commission will take public comment at the Vocational Rehabilitation Building, 3014 Blattner Drive.

Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Wolff is one of the few officials willing to advocate openly for a pay raise. In an interview Friday, Wolff said he wasn't asking for any specific increase but noted that the pay for Missouri judges is the lower than any adjacent state.

"These are reasonable, attentive and smart people, and they can figure it out in some kind of sensible fashion," Wolff said of commission members.

Missouri legislators receive $31,851 a year. Associate circuit judges receive $96,000 annually; circuit judges are paid $108,000; appellate judges receive $115,000; and Supreme Court judges are paid $123,000. The governor receives $120,087; the attorney general $104,332; the lieutenant governor $77,184. All other statewide elected officials receive $96,455.

By comparison, Southeast Missouri State University president Ken Dobbins's pay is $149,620 annually, and the president of the University of Missouri is paid $382,000.

The changes approved by voters Nov. 7 will make it easier for any raises suggested by the compensation commission to become law. Prior to the vote, lawmakers had two opportunities to turn down the extra money -- they could vote directly to reject a raise by a majority vote in both the House and Senate, and they could refuse to provide the money to fund raises when they wrote the state budget.

System 'didn't work'

Under the new rules, two-thirds of lawmakers must vote against accepting the recommendations and they no longer have the discretion of not including the raises when they appropriate tax dollars. Any pay raise recommended during the current round of discussions will not take effect for lawmakers until January 2009.

Area lawmakers, including Rep. Scott Lipke, R-Jackson and sponsor of Amendment 7, could not be reached for comment Friday on their views of whether pay rates should be increased.

The commission was created in 1994, and made its first report in 1996 and was designed to make additional recommendations every two years. Lawmakers, fearful of voter backlash, denied raises on four occasions.

"Two were vetoed, and the other two were fairly well ignored," Wolff said. "It is a system that didn't work."

The commission is designed to have a varied membership. Nine members are registered voters, chosen randomly by the secretary of state. One member is a retired judge chosen by the Missouri Supreme Court. The remaining 12 are chosen by the governor and represent business, labor, farming, poorer counties and geographic balance.

The commission almost became defunct, with no members appointed to the panel in 2004 by either then-secretary of state Matt Blunt or then-governor Bob Holden. Both Blunt, now governor, and Secretary of State Robin Carnahan acted quickly to fill the empty seats after passage of Amendment 7.

To avoid entangling the issues of judicial, legislative and elected official pay, Wolff has suggested that the commission has the power to issue separate reports on each branch of government. "I think the commission would have the discretion to do that," he said. "The constitution doesn't say anything about it one way or another."

The lack of pay raises shows disrespect to longtime public officials, said Circuit Judge Ben Lewis of Cape Girardeau.

"I have no right to complain about the pay. I just ran two years ago," said Lewis, who also won election to a full six-year term Nov. 7. But he noted that fellow Judge William Syler, who has been on the bench since 1992, has gone six years without a raise.

"If anybody worked for six years without a raise, they would feel they are not being treated right," Lewis said. "At some point, you have to give people a raise."

rkeller@semissourianc.com

335-6611, extension 126