Rules Panel Quickly OKs Pay-Hike Bill for Legislators

Without debate, an Assembly committee on Monday quickly approved a bill to increase legislative salaries by 10%, to $40,816 a year, while a state senator made plans to ask the voters to approve a proposal to raise them to twice that figure.

By a 7-0 vote, the legislative pay raise bill sponsored by Assembly Rules Committee Chairman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana) zipped through the Rules Committee in less than three minutes. It now goes to the Ways and Means Committee, where approval is expected.

Meanwhile, Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights) said he plans to amend legislation this week that would dramatically boost the salaries of state constitutional officers and legislators by tying their pay to that of Superior Court judges, who now make $81,505 a year.

Campbell’s amendments, in addition to lifting legislative salaries, would raise the governor’s pay from $85,000 to $104,330--the same salary received by the chief justice of the state Supreme Court.

The attorney general’s salary would increase from $77,500 to $99,486--the amount paid to associate Supreme Court justices.

The salaries of the lieutenant governor, controller, treasurer, secretary of state and state superintendent of public instruction would go from $72,500 to $93,272--the wage of District Court of Appeal jurists.

Campbell also said he tentatively plans to seek a limit on speech-making fees of 40% of the new legislative salary, and a reduction in the $75-per-day, tax-free living allowance legislators now receive.

In addition, Campbell would require detailed public reporting of all outside income exceeding $1,000 paid to state legislators. But there would be no limit on the amount of outside income that a lawmaker could make.

Campbell’s proposal, a constitutional amendment, would require voter approval. Bane’s bill would not.

“I think there is a need to place legislative salaries on line with the responsibilities that we ask of legislators,” Campbell said. “This is a full-time job with a great deal of responsibility and a $40-billion-plus budget.

“The managers of that sort of private enterprise usually are paid in the six-figure range. This proposal treats the executive branch, the judicial branch and the legislative branch with equal fairness.”

Campbell said Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) will be the lead co-author on his plan.

The bill, however, represents a retreat by Brown--who earlier this year called for doubling state legislative salaries to the $75,000-$85,000 range--but coupled it with a ban on all outside earned income for legislators.

The Assembly leader received more than $250,000 in outside earned income in 1986, including $150,000 from his law practice, $90,250 in speaking fees and $36,261 in gifts.

“Believe it or not, I can live on $75,000 a year,” quipped Brown, well-known for his fondness for $1,500 suits and fast, expensive foreign sports cars.

Raising Their Own Pay

A 1966 ballot proposition approved by the voters gave state lawmakers the right to raise their own salaries up to 5% annually.

Bane’s more modest 10% pay-raise bill amounts to a two-year salary increase, because the lawmakers’ last raise took effect in 1986.

In his brief opening remarks to the Rules Committee, the chairman said state lawmakers actually should be making $56,444 annually if their salaries had kept pace with the increased cost of living since 1967.

The raise to $40,816, which would start after the 1988 general election, would cost taxpayers $563,000 annually.

In addition to their salary, legislators receive a $75-a-day, tax-free allowance for living expenses when the Legislature is in session. They also have the use of state-leased automobiles and gasoline credit cards, and they are enrolled in a generous pension plan.

They also can--and do--receive other income from speaking engagements, and some maintain lucrative outside businesses. LEGISLATIVE PAY

Current Salary: $37,105

Salary Under Assembly Bill: $40,816

Salary Under Draft Senate Bill : $81,505

Current Tax-Free Expense Money: $75 / Day; $16,000 / Year; State Car and Fuel