Brown Offers Formula to Double Legislators’ Pay

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown said Tuesday he is considering a proposal that would double state legislators’ salaries to the $75,000-$85,000 range, the same as judges now make, while banning all outside income.

The legislation, which would need voter approval, also would eliminate a $75-per-day, tax-free allowance lawmakers get for living expenses and take away their state-leased automobiles.

Members of the Assembly and Senate would keep their health and retirement benefits, however. And the state would pay for once-a-week round-trip flights to home districts, plus automobile mileage while members are on state business.

“We should pay adequate salaries and bar any outside income,” Brown (D-San Francisco) said at a Capitol news conference. “Every member should be paid the same, identical compensation . . . and put us in a position where, under no circumstances, would our conduct ever be suspect . . . as we do our official duties.”

State lawmakers now make $37,105 a year. Municipal judges now make $74,432, superior court judges $81,505 and appellate court judges $93,272. Congressmen have been making $77,400 a year, but a proposal is pending to increase that to $89,500.

The Speaker’s legislative pay raise proposal got a tentative endorsement from his counterpart in the Senate, President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles). “I haven’t seen the language yet, but basically I think it’s a good idea,” Roberti said.

A spokeswoman for Gov. George Deukmejian, whose own salary last month climbed from $49,100 to $85,000 a year, said he had no comment on the idea. The legislation would be a constitutional amendment, which is not subject to a gubernatorial signature or veto.

The measure would require a two-thirds vote of both houses--54 votes in the Assembly and 27 in the Senate--to get on the ballot.

Asked how many legislators would lose money under his plan, Brown, who collected an additional $48,550 for making speeches to various organizations in 1985, said: “I know of one. I know it would be a dramatic reduction in my own income just on the speech-making tour.”

Brown’s Outside Income

The Assembly leader, who also is a San Francisco lawyer, added: “I have four or five clients who invariably pay me on a retainer basis $10,000 or more. But I am prepared to lose those things. First and foremost, I prefer legislative service. I would certainly like my name on the positive side of your ledger instead of the negative side of your ledger. And believe it or not, I can live on $75,000 a year.”

Brown, who wears $1,500 suits and drives fast, very expensive foreign sports cars, said he didn’t know how much money he made last year because that is still being computed by his accountant.

“I am not concerned about the image of making too much money,” he said. “I am concerned about the criticism that is forthcoming to all the members of the Legislature, including me, about outside income, whether from (speech) honoraria or from private sector employment. I would substitute instead an adequate income for the members of the Legislature.”

The Assembly leader also said he intends to ask U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian of Los Angeles, who is presiding over the political corruption trial of former Assemblyman Bruce E. Young (D-Norwalk), for any suggestions on campaign-finance reform legislation the jurist might have after the case is completed.

Tevrizian recently said he felt that state legislators should take another look at campaign contribution issues, regardless of the verdict on Young, who is charged with 28 counts of mail fraud in connection with failure to report income from convicted political corrupter W. Patrick Moriarty.

Brown tried but failed last year to get a campaign-finance reform bill through his own house. He said he plans to push for a similar measure this year.