Senate backs raises for top elected officials

The Senate has voted 21-13 in favor of HB 692a, the bill to raise salaries for Idaho’s top elected officials three and four years out, after first cutting them 4 percent next year and then restoring them to this year’s level in 2012. “It is quite modest,” Senate President Pro-Tem Bob Geddes told the Senate. “We only have a chance to adjust this on a four-year basis prior to the general election.” Senate Minority Leader Kate Kelly, D-Boise, and Sen. Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, spoke out against the bill. Said Stennett, “Given what we’ve done in cutting budgets and what we have tried to do to make ourselves fiscally responsible, people are struggling. It’s really a difficult time to explain to them why there’s an increase in salaries. … I just think it sends a bad message.”

The bill already had passed the House; it now heads to Gov. Butch Otter’s desk.