Pay raise measure delayed

Friday, June 27, 1997 | 11:17 a.m.

Assembly Bill 491 would raise lawmakers' salaries by 42 percent, from $7,800 to $11,100 per session. The increase would take effect in 1999 -- meaning current lawmakers would have to be re-elected to take advantage of it.

Supporters, including the Nevada Taxpayers Association, have said the pay hike is needed to ensure that people of varying economic levels can become legislators. If AB491 passes, it would be the first legislative pay raise since 1985.

But Arberry, D-Las Vegas, admitted Thursday he's facing some reluctance among lawmakers -- including many who voted down a similar pay raise plan in 1995.

Legislators have been especially cautious since 1989, when a public outcry forced them to go into special session to rescind a 300 percent pension increase.

AB491 has already passed Arberry's Ways and Means Committee, where lawmakers voted to remove a monthly allowance that would have been given to lawmakers between sessions.

Ways and Means members who voted for the raise included key officials like Assembly Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, and Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville.

Ways and Means members Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, and David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, were the only two who voted against the measure. Cegavske has said she would prefer that an independent commission decide lawmakers' salaries, while Goldwater said he'd prefer shorter sessions.

Arberry argues that it's not fair for current legislators to penalize future ones by not voting for a pay increase because the decision is politically unpopular.

"We're not elected here to think that we are supposed to be entrenched," Arberry said. "I don't go into this job assuming that I'm going to be re-elected."

Arberry added that lawmakers have the option of refusing the pay raise if AB491 passes.

Arberry said he expects AB491 to appear on the Assembly floor in the next day or two. He said he hasn't begun talking to Senate members to see whether they favor the bill.

"I just need to get my 22," he said, referring to the majority necessary to pass the bill in the Assembly.