Panel Defends 12% Raise Granted State Lawmakers

By Nancy Vogel

July 15, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO —

A little-known state board sat down this spring to ponder this ticklish question: What does a California legislator deserve to be paid these days?

What the members decided caused more than a few people to scratch their heads, considering that:

* California legislators were already the highest-paid state lawmakers in the land, with an annual salary of $99,000 on top of benefits that include daily expenses, auto rentals, car repairs, gasoline and staff expenses.

* In a Field Poll last month, their job rating hit a low for the year, with only 24% of voters approving and only 5% believing that lawmakers would “do what is right” to resolve the state’s chronic budget deficit.

Still, the California Citizens Compensation Commission, autonomous under state law, decided that rank-and-file legislators should be granted a 12% raise, to $110,880.

“Not bad for a job that only meets four days a week for seven months,” said Russell J. Hammer, head of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, in a subsequent missive to members. (The lawmakers rarely meet on Fridays.)

The increase won’t take effect until December, but at least three legislators -- out of 80 in the Assembly and 40 in the Senate -- have already said they plan to pass up or donate the extra $11,880, one considering it indecorous at a time of cuts to services for the needy.

The compensation commission, which meets once a year to weigh the salaries of top elected state officials, was established in 1990 when voters also banned honorariums and restricted gifts to lawmakers and other elected state officials.

Since December, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has left unfilled two vacant seats on the commission; the remaining five members were appointed by former Gov. Gray Davis. They are the former head of the Los Angeles Urban League, sheriff’s deputies from San Francisco and Orange Counties, a lawyer for a large home-building company and a leader of a textile workers union. Two members agreed to talk about their pay-raise decision:

Question: Why does the Legislature need a 12% raise?

A: Commissioner Cristina Vazquez, a regional manager for the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, said lawmakers worked hard for constituents, most had to maintain two homes (in the capital and in their district), they didn’t get a pension and they hadn’t seen a salary increase since 1998.

Added Commissioner Thomas Dominguez, a bomb technician in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department: “We must have salaries and benefits that will enable us to attract highly qualified individuals to serve as the leaders of our government. If we fail to do so, we will attract only individuals with financial means to serve in elected office.... We could not maintain a diversified and representative Legislature if that was the case.

“We are the most populated, most multi-industry, most complex state in the nation,” he added. “Our problems reflect the size and complexity of our state.”

Q: Did anyone think this raise would be awkward?

A: “The increase was for those that deserve and needed the increase,” Vazquez said. “If the legislator is not in need of the increase, they can refuse to accept it.”

Dominguez said the commission was charged with setting pay based on the responsibility of and experience needed to fill a position, not on the individual who holds the position.

“It is appropriately the province of the voters to determine who should fill elected offices,” he said.

Q: How do you think most state residents took the news, considering that the average California worker got only a 2.9% raise last year, according to the Economic Policy Institute in Washington?

A: Without explanation, news of a 12% raise for lawmakers would understandably upset some people, Vazquez said. “But reality is that for seven years the legislators have not received a wage increase; many of them work seven days per week,” she said.

Dominguez added that average Californians got raises in years when lawmakers got none.

Q: What data did the commission look at when deciding how much to grant?

A: Commissioners considered the wages and benefits of lawmakers in other states, the consumer price index, and current and historical salaries for other elected officials and private sector employees. They weighed information from lawmakers themselves about their duties, commutes to work and the financial effect of maintaining two homes. Dominguez also said he spoke to “regular citizens whose opinions I value.”

Q: Don’t lawmakers get additional money for expenses?

A: Yes. State officials say each lawmaker who lives more than 50 miles from the Capitol gets $138 a day for travel, food and other expenses when the Legislature is in session. That amounts to more than $27,000 in additional tax-free income each year for most members. Critics have complained that the per diem payments can be abused: Lawmakers usually don’t meet Fridays, but they often convene -- sometimes just to log their presence and collect the $138 -- before a three-day holiday.

Every lawmaker also gets a minimum of $264,000 a year to spend on staff, office rental, office supplies, postage and other expenses.

Each month, lawmakers may also use from $350 to $400 of state money on a vehicle lease. Taxpayers also pick up the gasoline tab, which can amount to several thousand dollars a year per member.

Legislators get no pension, but their benefits -- dental and vision coverage and long-term disability insurance -- are equivalent to those of a state employee.

Q: How have lawmakers reacted to the pay raise? Has anyone turned it down?

A: Lawmakers have until December to decide whether to accept the raise, but at least three have already said they will not.

Assemblyman Doug La Malfa (R-Richvale) said he would give the additional money, minus taxes, to worthy causes in Northern California.

Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge) said he would decline the increase. Assemblywoman Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) said in a letter to the state controller that she would also.

“Taxpayer monies would be better spent on education, essential services and programs that help working families and their children, the aged, blind, disabled and the indigent,” Chu said in a news release.

Some lawmakers have defended the pay raise, saying $138 a day for expenses does not cover the cost of travel and maintaining two homes. Others have called the timing of the raise unfortunate and said it would be better to wait until the state is in stronger financial shape.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Lawmakers don’t come cheap

When the California Citizens Compensation Commission gave rank-and-file legislators a salary boost this spring, it was the sixth increase since voters established the independent authority in 1990.

Top state legislative salaries (as of 2004)

Calif.: $99,000

Mich.: $79,650

N.Y.: $79,500

Average senator’s expenditures (Dec. 2002--Nov. 2003)

Auto pool: $$1,122.64

Auto rental: $3,081.98

Car maintenance: $1,479.51

Car rental: $3,790.22

District building expense: 40,461.87

Duplicating: $18,467.31

Employee salaries and benefits*: $622,587.44