State Officials to Get 18% Pay Hike

At a time when most California workers are struggling to have their salaries keep pace with inflation, the state’s top elected officials will be treated to an 18% pay hike this year.

A government commission that sets the salaries approved the increase Friday after the attorney general and the state superintendent of education -- both of whom earn $148,750 a year -- complained that they were underpaid.

The raises are the first in six years to be awarded to the dozen state constitutional officers. They will boost the governor’s salary, which millionaire Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger does not accept, to more than $200,000. Members of the state Assembly and Senate, who received a controversial 12% raise last year, were given an increase of 2% in their $110,880 pay.

The unanimous decision by the California Citizens Compensation Commission, a panel that meets annually to set salaries and benefits for the state’s top elected officials, drew criticism from some fiscal conservatives and watchdog groups that questioned whether the state could afford the pay hikes -- and whether the recipients deserved them.

“It is completely inappropriate,” said Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge), one of 19 legislators who refused to accept the pay raise that was granted to them last year. The state is still struggling with a chronic budget deficit, Richman noted, with spending projected to exceed revenues by several billion dollars in coming years.

Doug Heller, executive director of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, said the raises would bring the officials further “out of whack with where real Californians are economically.”

“These politicians are placed financially so far above the mainstream that it skews their view of reality,” he said.

But recipients of the raises, many of whom have been getting paid less than top members of their own staffs, said the pay hikes were long overdue. Among them is the attorney general, who is paid less than some first-year associates at California’s corporate law firms.

“He is the top law enforcement official in the state,” said Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, who is serving his last year in the job. “Even with the raise, the attorney general will still be making less than the Marin County district attorney and the El Dorado district attorney, to name a few.... It just got to the point where it was untenable.”

Indeed, the attorney general’s new salary of $175,525 will still be lower than that of at least a half dozen county district attorneys. (Los Angeles County D.A. Steve Cooley earns $220,445.) But it will be higher than the pay of any other state attorney general in the country. The next-highest paid attorneys general are those of New York and Virginia, where the salary is about $150,000.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, meanwhile, will continue to lag behind his peers in at least three other states despite the big raise. His $175,525 salary will be nearly $50,000 less than his counterpart in Florida gets. The schools chiefs in Ohio and Massachusetts also will continue to earn more than O’Connell -- as will the top administrators of 72 local school districts in California.

O’Connell’s new salary is about equal to what the head administrator of the Westminster Elementary School District in Orange County is paid. (L.A. schools Supt. Roy Romer is paid $250,000 annually.)

“This brings the pay more in line with what other officials around the country and around the state are earning,” said Rick Miller, a spokesman for O’Connell.

The salaries of the lieutenant governor, controller, treasurer, secretary of state, insurance commissioner and the four members of the state Board of Equalization -- which mediates tax disputes -- also were raised 18%. Those officials currently earn between $131,250 and $140,000.

Voters created the seven-member, bipartisan commission in 1990 with Proposition 112, giving it authority to set salaries and benefits without approval from lawmakers or the governor. Commissioners come from business, labor and the general public.

Current members include John W. Mack, former president of the Los Angeles Urban League; Thomas Dominguez, a bomb technician with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; Larry Gotlieb, a vice president with KB Home; Cristina Vazquez, a leader of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees; and David K. Wong, a law enforcement officer in San Francisco. Mack did not attend Friday’s meeting.

“We’re looking at what is the fair thing to do for elected officials who are spending 24 hours a day, seven days a week on duty,” Gotlieb said.

The raises were also encouraged by labor unions and at least one campaign finance watchdog, who warned that underpaying the state’s top executives makes them more vulnerable to corruption.

Robert Fellmeth, executive director of the Center of Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, said too many state officials have become susceptible to “deferred bribes” -- making decisions on behalf of companies that hire them for high-paying jobs after they leave office. He suggested that a bump in pay would remove some of the temptation.

“Another $40,000 paid to people who make these momentous decisions -- so they are made a bit more on the merits -- is money well spent,” he said.

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Officials’ paydays headed up

The California Citizens Compensation Commission voted Friday

to increase the salaries of 12 statewide officeholders by 18% and members of the Legislature by 2%. Here is a breakdown of the current salaries and the pay after the raises take effect in December.

Governor: From $175,000 to $206,500.

* Lieutenant governor: From $131,250 to $154,875.

* Attorney general: From $148,750 to $175,525.

* Controller: From $140,000 to $165,200.

* Treasurer: From $140,000 to $165,200.

* Secretary of state: From $131,250 to $154,875.

* Superintendent of public instruction: From $148,750 to $175,525.

* Insurance commissioner: From $140,000 to $165,200.

* State Board of Equalization member: From $131,250 to $154,875.

* Speaker/president pro tem: From $127,512 to $130,062.

* Minority floor leader: From $127,512 to $130,062.

* Majority floor leader: From $119,196 to $121,579.

* 2nd-ranking minority leader: From $119,196 to $121,579.

* Other legislative members: From $110,880 to $113,097.

From the Associated Press