Raises for state officials approved

SEATAC – Hundreds of Washington politicians and judges will see large raises this summer, thanks to a citizens’ panel that concluded Tuesday all are underpaid.

“I think that the people that are thoughtful about the process acknowledge the need for comparable pay,” said retired banker Alan Doman, a member of the group.

The plan adopted Tuesday boosts Gov. Chris Gregoire’s pay 8 percent, to $163,618 a year. Lt. Gov. Brad Owen’s would rise nearly 17 percent, to $92,106.

Rank and file state lawmakers will get a 14 percent raise. The paychecks for district, appeals and superior court judges will go up 7 percent, as will those for the nine Supreme Court justices.

Tuesday’s vote capped months of discussion by the Citizens’ Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials, nine of whose 16 members are chosen randomly from the voter rolls. The other seven represent organized labor, business and other groups.

A few members of the commission balked at the large increase for Lt. Gov. Owen, saying the $13,000 boost is too much.

“I don’t mind catching up, but I thought we overcaught” on that increase, said Katherine Wade-Easley, a Woodinville horse trainer.

Also voting no on Owen’s raise was Greenacres businessman Scott Baxter, the only Spokane-area person on the panel. Asked about it after the meeting, Baxter said he didn’t want to discuss it.

As in previous years, public comment was minimal. Hearings in Spokane, Olympia, Port Angeles and Everett drew comments from only about 15 people. Another 60 submitted comments by phone and over the Internet.

Some were taxpayers like Stevens County resident Charles Bourg, who said that politicians’ raises should be secondary to school funding and should go to voters for approval. Others – including several former legislative staffers and an ex-lawmaker – said that state representatives and senators deserve more pay. At the Port Angeles hearing, retired state worker Nora Porter said it’s an embarrassment that legislative leaders such as House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, are paid just $44,000 a year.

Many teachers and state employees said that elected officials should get only the same cost-of-living increase they got: 3.2 percent this year, for example, for state workers.

“There clearly were those who said it’s outrageous, that nobody should get these kinds of raises, that they’re public servants,” said Doman. “You always have that element. But I think there was much more of a balance this time, including people that were supportive of increasing the pay.”

“I think it made people feel like they were going in the right direction,” said Wade-Easley. “I was kind of surprised. I thought there would be a lot more people saying no.”

The commission studied job duties and pay, comparing them to similar public-sector jobs. Nearly half a dozen city and county executives, for example, earn more money than Gov. Gregoire. And several top state elected officials, including the auditor, treasurer and secretary of state, earn less than the finance director of Edmonds, Wash., population 40,000.

In order to attract top-tier people to public service, the commission concluded, the state must pay them better. Otherwise, legislative leaders predict, supposedly representative bodies like the state House and Senate run the risk of attracting mainly the retired or the rich.

Once the new salary schedule is filed with the secretary of state’s office, residents have 90 days to file a referendum attempting to veto it. Otherwise, it automatically becomes law.

The final salary changes were a mix of different adjustments, including “general wage adjustments,” “equity adjustments,” “catch-up increases,” and “keep-up increases.” From 1993 to 1998, most of Washington state’s elected officials’ salaries were frozen.

“Our increases were probably more significant than they have been,” Doman said, “… because we don’t want to get behind the process.”