June 10, 2008
With Hands Tied, A Salary Freeze
 
If you voted for Proposition 112 in June 1990 and thought that you’d created an independent commission with full control over the salaries of state lawmakers… think again.

After a much ballyhooed flirtation with cutting the pay of legislators and statewide elected officials by 10%, the California Citizens Compensation Commission today voted instead to freeze those salaries at the level they’ve been since 2007, when the commission gave lawmakers a raise.

Whether the commissioners in attendance at today’s meeting in Sacramento would have actually cut lawmaker pay is questionable (for reasons explained in a moment). But that issue never even made it to the table, after legal counsel advised the appointed panel that they have only limited power to cut salaries.

Confused? Buckle your seatbelts.

Prop 112 created the commission and gave it the power to set salaries. So far, so good. And the attorney’s opinion issued today confirmed that commissioners do have the power to not just raise pay for 120 legislators, eight constitutional officers, and the four members of the state Board of Equalization… but also lower it.

An aside: it’s remarkable that neither the current nor former commissioners have ever approved a pay cut, isn’t it?

But here’s the catch. A separate section of the California constitution… not the part created by voters… actually limits the commission’s power to make cutbacks. Article III, Section 4(b) says, “salaries of elected state officers may not be reduced during their term of office.”

So… because the salary commission’s decisions take effect in December, after the 2008 elections, the only pay cuts that they can make are for the Assembly and half of the state Senate — because these are the only positions where a new term of office will begin. The pay rates of the other 20 members of the Senate and all of the constitutional officers can’t be lowered, because those officials are in the middle of a “term of office” until 2010.

With their power of the political purse hindered, the commission then approved a resolution to simply maintain the status quo. That leaves the pay of rank-and-file legislators at $116,208 and the governor (though Arnold Schwarzenegger declines his salary) at $212,179. The full list is here.

Of course, the commission could have slashed the pay for more than 80% of the Legislature… but rejected a proposal to do so on a 2-3 vote. Part of the hesitation, it seems, was due to the loophole about the lawmaker’s term.

“That is unfair,” said commissioner Thomas Dominguez, an Orange County sheriff’s investigator, who said all lawmakers should be treated the same.

But Dominguez also said he was opposed to any pay cut driven by a sense that lawmakers aren’t doing their jobs well. “That’s the job of the voter,” he told reporters afterward. “They’re the ones who did the hiring of these people, then they’re the ones that should fire them.”

By the way, it should be noted that nine senators and 17 assemblymembers turned down the pay raise that went into effect this past January, according to data from the state controller’s office. Other than the governor, all constitutional officers are accepting their full salaries.