The Legislature voted unanimously to reject proposed pay raises for Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his cabinet but now that pay raises for legislators are part of the picture, things aren’t quite so united.
Alaska House Speaker Cathy Tilton told reporters on Tuesday she’s pushing for the rejection of the proposed 67% pay increase for legislators and the 20% increase for the governor and his cabinet.
“One of the things that we talked about in our caucus goals is accountability for good governance and this was definitely an unusual process,” she said, explaining how the House had requested a joint session with the Senate to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of legislation disapproving of the pay raises. “People have different opinions on what this should look like but at this point I think that that conversation needs to continue a little bit more.”
However, it’s unlikely that the Senate—whose leadership argues the legislator pay raises are long overdue and an important tool to ensuring people of all walks of life can serve as legislators—will play ball.
“We all realize it could have been done a little smoother, but we also could have had a functioning compensation board for the last decade,” said Senate Finance Committee co-Chair Sen. Bert Stedman at the Senate’s weekly news conference on Tuesday. “We have to have, in my opinion, a wage that allows middle-aged Alaskans with a family to come to Juneau, and my concern is we have some current members who are new that aren’t going to be able to stay here and afford to do the job for very long.”
The showdown is the latest development in the often twisting and eyebrow-raising process of determining pay for public officials in Alaska.
After the Legislature unanimously voted to reject the Alaska State Officer Compensation Commission’s recommendation to raise the pay for the governor and his, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his administration put into motion a complete overhaul of the board. After hiring away, firing or accepting the resignations of all five members of the board, the new board members held an emergency 15-minute last week where they swiftly approved adding a 67% pay raise for legislators to the recommendation.
While it’s all seemingly within the rules, it’s a process that has raised questions about the true independence of the commission and just how involved legislators were in pushing for the changes. The board waived its regular public notice requirements, which give the public a heads-up on the changes and an opportunity to weigh in.
At his own news conference later on Tuesday, Dunleavy defended the process.
“I know that some want to believe that there was some nefarious or dark reason why the members of the commission were removed, but as I explained earlier, all statutes, constitution, regs, you name it, were followed, have been followed, will be followed,” said Dunleavy, according to the Anchorage Daily News’ reporting.
Both House Speaker Tilton and Senate President Gary Stevens said they were not aware of Dunleavy’s plans to completely reshape the commission when they were asked to submit names to fill two of the five seats that require legislative input.
“At the time when I was asked to put some names forward,” Tilton said, “no, I did not know that the entire makeup of the commission would be changed.”
In the Senate Majority’s news conference, Stevens acknowledged he had floated the $84,000 figure for legislator pay in drafted legislation (which would have gone into effect after the 33rd Legislature) and communicated those plans to the governor’s administration but didn’t directly request the changes be made to the commission.
“We were not involved in that whole process,” Stevens said. “You really need to ask the governor.”
As for the House’s request to override the governor’s veto, Stevens said he hadn’t yet had the chance to gauge support in the Senate for such a move. He said, though, that he supported the pay raise and the governor’s veto.
“As I’m ending my career in a few years, it’s not going to affect me very much. It is affecting I think the younger folks that are entering the Legislature. You deserve to have a livable wage coming to Juneau,” Stevens added.
It’s not entirely clear that the Legislature overriding the governor’s veto would actually reject legislator pay, though. There’s mixed legal thinking on the issue, but it seems that the general belief is the amended report starts a new 60-day clock for legislators to reject the pay. Recommendations of the Alaska State Officers Compensation Commission automatically go into effect unless a law opposing them is passed into law.
Several senators said if the House really opposes the legislator pay, they should introduce new legislation disapproving of the raises and pass that through the process.
To that end, the House Minority members Reps. Donna Mears, Maxine Dibert and Cliff Groh introduced such legislation today. The House Minority was the first caucus to stake out opposition the to the governor’s pay raise, arguing that no one in the leadership should get raises while school funding and other issues are unresolved.
“We do need to regularly adjust compensation levels for everyone, but we should focus on supporting police, teachers, and other front-line public servants before funding pay increases for high-level executives and the Legislature,” said Rep. Donna Mears in a prepared statement.
“This process stinks to high heaven,” said Rep. Cliff Groh in the statement.
And if that doesn’t work (as it likely won’t seeing as it would have to clear the Senate and governor), Senate President Stevens had this advice to legislators opposed to the pay raises:
“Any legislator who feels they’re being overpaid can very easily ask Legislative Council to reduce their salary. If they want to stay at $50,000, they can stay at $50,000. It’s a political issue and it’s political theater,” he said. “If you’re unhappy with a raise, you don’t have to accept it.”
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
