Pay Raises Take Effect for State Officials : Government: Some say they won’t accept the 5% increase approved by a special panel last April.

Gov. Pete Wilson, legislators and most other state elected officials were eligible for an early Christmas present from taxpayers Monday--a 5% pay raise that was approved last April.

But some officials have announced that they won’t take the extra money, including state Controller Kathleen Connell and Secretary of State Bill Jones, said Edd Fong, a spokesman for Connell, who signs state checks.

The increase will boost Wilson’s salary, at least on paper, to $126,000 a year. The Republican governor has been taking a voluntary 5% pay cut that has dropped his annual state income to $114,000, but there was no immediate word on whether he will accept the new increase.

Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren and state Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin can receive $107,100 annually under the pay raise approved by a state commission.

The pay levels of Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, Connell, Treasurer Matt Fong and Jones will jump from $90,000 to $94,500.

Rank-and-file legislators will receive $75,600 a year. Democratic and Republican leaders in each house will get $83,160, and the Assembly Speaker and Senate president pro tem will make $90,720.

The increases were approved by the California Citizens Compensation Commission, a seven-member panel authorized by voters in 1990 and appointed by the governor.

Five officials, Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush and four members of the State Board of Equalization, are not getting a raise. Peter Strom of the state Department of Personnel Administration said the Compensation Commission decided their salaries should be kept at $95,052.

Commission members said they would consider raises for the five next year as pay for the lieutenant governor, controller, treasurer and secretary of state catches up.

The raises for the governor and other statewide officials were the first in five years. Lawmakers got a 37% raise in 1994, which made them the highest-paid state legislators in the country.

Fong said Jones, Connell and two legislators, Assembly members Marilyn C. Brewer (R-Irvine) and Jim Cunneen (R-Cupertino), had notified the controller’s office that they will not accept the raise.

Several other legislators may also turn down the raise. Fong said that, like Wilson, some lawmakers have taken voluntary 5% pay cuts but he said he did not have their names immediately available.