PAY COMMISSION MASKS LEGISLATIVE DECISIONS

In the few years the Missouri Citizens Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials has been around, state lawmakers whose salaries are affected by commission action have continued to get pay raises, and the lawmakers themselves have continued the privilege of granting themselves those raises.

Hardly seems right considering what Missourians were led to believe in 1994. That is when voters passed a constitutional amendment they thought would put a stop to lawmakers raising their own salaries. But the fact is, every two years the commission has recommended lawmakers get raises, and the General Assembly members have consistently granted themselves raises.

The Supreme Court ruled last June that legislators must treat everyone in the schedule of pay recommendations equally. If one office gets 100 percent of the recommended salary, so must everyone else. So the General Assembly members must raise their own salaries if they approve pay increases for other state-paid officials.

The pay commission has come under a lot of fire the past couple of years. It has received so much heat because of its practice of recommending pay raises each time around that the Legislature itself is talking about doing away with the eight-member panel.

The Senate recently gave preliminary approval to a plan that would give voters an opportunity to scrap the commission or change how it works. If the House gives its nod, voters in November will decide two constitutional amendments: one that would do away with the commission, and another that would set up the panel so that it only offers guidance on pay. Under the proposal to change the panel's function, the Legislature would retain the power to set salaries up to the level set by the commission and could decide to give judges a pay raise but withhold one for themselves. That would give the lawmakers some flexibility.

If the whole intention in 1994 was to take pay-increase decisions out of the hands of the General Assembly, the measure has fallen drastically short of its purpose. And so does the alternative that would change the commission's duties to offer only guidance on pay.

The best solution is to do away with the Missouri Citizens' Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials. Let the Legislature decide who gets raises and who doesn't. It would be nice to once again know who votes to raise their pay instead of allowing lawmakers to hide behind excuses.