The penultimate day of the 2023 legislative session didn’t produce any action on the Legislature’s must-do job of passing the budget, but it did see time run out for legislators to block a substantial pay increase for themselves.
With the 17-member Senate Majority firmly in favor of the pay raises, the failure to reject the pay raises has been a foregone conclusion since the State Officer Compensation Commission approved the raises in a 15-minute meeting in March. That approval came after the commissioners were all replaced by Gov. Mike Dunleavy after the Legislature rejected an initial recommendation for the governor and his cabinet, but not legislators, to get pay raises.
Still, it didn’t stop the Republican-led House Majority from bringing a completely symbolic vote to the House floor on Tuesday so legislators could decry the raises while knowing full well that they’d still get said raises.
“I think for my conscience, I need to make a statement: Don’t cut the PFD, don’t shut down government, don’t overspend and give me a raise. It doesn’t sit well with me,” said Anchorage Republican Rep. Craig Johnson, who as the House Rules Committee chair has the power to set the House calendar.
Legislators voted 33-7 to approve a bill that would reject the pay raises, but many called out the entire process from the governor’s abrupt axing of the commissioners for a more friendly panel to how the Legislature’s leadership dragged its feet and waited until the vote would be meaningless.
Rep. Donna Mears, D-Anchorage, noted some have likened it to Kabuki theater and accused the House of being run with the interests of legislators in mind.
“I’m beyond frustrated with the process and the outcome we’re looking at here. I’m frustrated with the process of the salary commission and I’m frustrated with the process of this body. This bill has been in Rules for weeks,” she said. “This is not how we should be operating. This is not the outcome we should be having. This body, I’m seeing as a freshman, is operated far more in the interest of the members here than it should. It should be operating far more in the interests of Alaskans and it’s not doing that work nearly as well as it should.”
Others said it was unsightly for them to accept 67% pay increases without addressing the pressing needs of the state or even passing a budget.
Rep. Mears noted that there was legislation aimed at reforming the process of determining legislator pay, including a provision that would have made it so the pay increases go into effect at the start of a new Legislature every two years rather than at the start of the new legislative session every year. As it stands, the pay raises will go into effect for legislators in January 2024.
That legislation has also sat in the House Rules Committee for more than a month despite having bipartisan support.
A handful of legislators spoke in defense of the pay raises, echoing many of the sentiments shared by the Senate leadership about the need to attract a diverse range of legislators regardless of their individual wealth.
“It’s not about making a buck,” said Rep. George Rauscher, R-Sutton. “I think it has to be able to do it without going in the hole and going bankrupt. I don’t think just retired people with another retirement should be able to sit here in my seat because they can afford to do what I’m doing. I don’t think people who are rich should be able to sit in my seat and do what I do because they can afford it. I think everybody deserves the opportunity.”
Under the commission’s recommendations, legislators will receive a 67% pay raise that will bring the annual salary of legislators up to $84,000. The proposal makes no corresponding changes to per diem, which allows legislators who live outside of the capital city to collect $307 per legislative day or about $37,000 for the 121-day legislative session. Special sessions, like the one the Legislature is likely to head into unless there’s a breakthrough on the budget, can boost that number even more.
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.
