Bill raises top state officials’ salaries 9.5% over next four years - except Attorney General, whose pay would rise 8%
Under legislation that’s headed for final passage in the Senate, the salary for Idaho’s governor would rise 9.5 percent next year, and then stay fixed for the next four years, as would those for all of Idaho’s full-time top officials except one: The Idaho Attorney General, who would see an 8 percent pay increase for the next four years. NOTE: An earlier version of this post, based on the language in the statute, said the Attorney General would get only a 1.7 percent increase, because the current statute reflects that he makes the same as a district judge, which is currently $131,700. However, as noted by House Majority Caucus Chairman John VanderWoude, statewide elected officials can't accept raises during their four-year terms, so Wasden currently is making what district judges made four years ago - $124,000. That makes his raise for the next four years to $134,000 an 8 percent boost, rather than 1.7 percent.
The bill, HB 670, cleared the Senate State Affairs Committee this morning on a unanimous vote; it earlier passed the House, 63-5.
Asked for comment, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden issued this statement: “I appreciate the Legislature’s efforts to adjust salaries for Idaho’s constitutional officers. I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve in state government.”
There’s some history to this one. Lawmakers have to set salaries for statewide elected officials just once every four years, prior to the election in which voters choose them. Four years ago, when Wasden had been at 90 percent of the governor’s salary, while all other full-time statewide elected officials – the Secretary of State, treasurer and controller – were at 85 percent, lawmakers decided the Attorney General’s salary at that point was set too low for a position that required being an attorney. The salary was $113,400 in 2014. So that year, lawmakers shifted the Attorney General’s salary to make it equal to that of a district judge.
District judges’ salaries have been increased since then, and they now make $131,700.
VanderWoude, R-Nampa, said lawmakers now realize that that approach would lead to the Attorney General making more than the governor - if he could have accepted the most recent increase that judges got, he'd make more than the governor now. “The intent is within the next three years, to take a look at the whole salary structure, the whole compensation package,” VanderWoude said. He noted that in addition to his current salary of $126,302, the governor receives a housing allowance of $4,500 per month, or $54,000 per year; that comes from the governor’s housing fund, rather than the state general fund, because the state currently lacks a governor’s mansion. Otter lives at his ranch in Star. Lawmakers may reconsider that over the next four years, VanderWoude said, along with other compensation issues.
Under the bill, the Attorney General’s salary would rise to $134,000 next year, then revert to 90 percent of the governor’s salary four years from now. If the governor’s salary didn’t change at that point, “In four years he would get a cut,” VanderWoude said, “but that’s not the intent.”
“I think the governor is more responsible, and it does require higher pay,” he said.
VanderWoude said the salary bill isn’t political and isn’t intended as any kind of knock against Wasden. “Let’s take the personalities out of this one, and let’s try to figure out over the next three years what the state officials’ salaries should look like,” he said.
“This was agreeable to everybody as the step we would take now,” VanderWoude told the Senate committee. “I did check with the Attorney General’s office before I even introduced this, to make sure they were OK, and they said they were fine with this step.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Winder, R-Boise, said, “We think the governor should be paid proportionately to his duties and his responsibilities. We think that outweighs the education requirement” for the Attorney General position.
Added Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, “It was not meant to send a message to the Attorney General. We talked about it. … It seemed like a fair way to go.”
He added, “We’re just trying to be careful with taxpayer dollars, and our elected officials are committed to that too.”
U.S. governors’ salaries range from $70,000 in Maine to more than $187,000 in Pennsylvania. In 2016, Idaho’s gubernatorial salary ranked 35th among the 50 states, according to Ballotpedia.
