PAY RAISES FOR LEGISLATORS, JUDGES HINGE ON SENATE ACTION

Repudiation of the proposed pay raises for Missouri judges and lawmakers is now halfway completed. Or is it?

Wasting no time, on Thursday the House voted by the overwhelming margin of 118-22 -- with 10 members voting "present" -- to reject the pay raise proposal. The whole process was set in motion when in 1994 voters approved a constitutional amendment creating the Commission on Compensation of Elected Officials. This commission held a series of hearings around the state last year before issuing its recommendations. For part-time lawmakers, those recommendations were 22 percent increases, from $26,800 in two stages up to $35,000, plus an increase in the per diem from the current $35 to $86. For judges the percentage increases were even higher. Associate circuit judges (every Missouri county has at least one, no matter how tiny or depopulated) would see an increase from about $81,000 up to $99,000.

Action now moves to the Senate, where a committee heard three and a half hours of testimony this week on the issue. That chamber's senior member, Sen. John Schneider, D-Florissant, is offering several versions of a lesser, phased-in set of increases. Commission members were present to make their case for why raises of such magnitude are justified. They were largely unconvincing.

Of 15 Senate Republicans, 13 have already signed onto resolutions rejecting the pay raise proposal. Thus it would appear that the fate of the proposal rests with a Senate Democratic caucus whose leader has declared his support. Five of 19 Senate Democrats voting to reject, possibly even fewer, would seal its fate. All this unfolds amid threats of a filibuster to prevent any vote from freshman Sen. Ken Jacobs, D-Columbia, a pay raise supporter. For his part Sen. Schneider vows that no matter what, the Senate will vote on the issue. It should be an interesting couple of weeks in the upper chamber. Senators should join the House and just say no. Missourians are watching.