Democrats: Say no to pay raise

Idaho Democratic legislators are calling for rejection of a scheduled legislative pay increase in January, and the GOP House speaker says Republicans likely will agree.

A citizens committee recommended in June that state legislators get a 5 percent raise this year, from $16,116 to $16,921 a year. The raise will take effect unless lawmakers reject it by concurrent resolution in January.

But Gov. Butch Otter, citing falling state tax revenues, is calling for zero raises for state employees next year.

“Simply put, we are unwilling to take the pay raise recommended by the compensation committee at a time when so many Idaho families and small businesses are hurting,” said state Sen. Les Bock, D-Boise, who said he’ll introduce a resolution in the Senate in January to reject the pay boost.

House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, said his caucus agrees with the Democrats on that point.

“In the House, it’ll probably be overwhelming,” he said. “With the budgets the way they are, I think it’s going to be difficult for us to accept any pay increase.”

Otter has ordered 4 percent cutbacks in this year’s state budget and told agencies to cut an additional 6 percent for next year.

“I don’t think we’ve hit bottom yet on this recession,” Denney said. “That’s scary, when you think that we’re already looking at a 10 percent reduction from last year and we don’t even know where the bottom is yet.”