Compromise Forecast On Pay For Officials

Idaho House and Senate leaders said Thursday they expect a compromise on how much to raise salaries for the governor and the state’s other top elected officials that will break the chief executive’s pay through the six-figure barrier by 2002.

“It’s quite important to me,” Senate President Pro Tem Jerry Twiggs told the Idaho Press Club. “When we look at all the people who earn more than $100,000 in this state, we ought to move it beyond that figure sometime.”

Salaries for elected state officials cannot be adjusted during a term of office, so if no change is made this year the next time the Legislature could approve a raise would be 2002.

The day after a Senate-passed bill that would have raised the governor’s salary to $103,000 died in committee, the House approved a version with 3 percent annual pay increases for all the top officials through 2002.

That would top out the governor’s salary at $95,668.

House Speaker Mike Simpson and Twiggs, both Blackfoot Republicans, said they expected a compromise would be reached setting the base pay for each office higher before beginning the 3 percent annual increases.

, DataTimes