Senate OKs pay raise for lawmakers

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A proposed constitutional amendment to double the salary of legislators was approved Tuesday by the Senate and sent to the Assembly.

"This recognizes the changing times," Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said in support of Senate Joint Resolution 11, which calls for each lawmaker to be paid $130 salary per day for the full 120-day session, instead of having the pay end on the 60th day of the session.

The 1864 Legislature imposed the cutoff date for the salary and it has remained in the Constitution since.

The Senate in favor of the raise Tuesday was 16-5, with the opponents being Las Vegas Democrats. After the vote Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said this was not a party issue. She voted against the resolution.

Titus said the timing wasn't good for passage of SJR11. The state has a big surplus and she said it looks like the lawmakers want to cash in on that. But, she said, raising the pay would make it a lot easier for her to recruit candidates for the Senate.

She said she would like to see the public start an initiative petition to boost the pay of lawmakers.

"I would like to see it come from the bottom up," she said.

SJR11 was approved in the 2003 Legislature. If passed by the Assembly this year, it will go on the ballot in 2006.

Raggio said those senators voting for the plan are not increasing their salary. The voters will have the final say.

Raggio predicted the voters would pass the resolution. If passed by the voters, the raise will cost the public an extra $500,000 every two years, Raggio said.

The last salary raise for legislators was in 1985 when the daily salary went to the $130 level. Raggio said lawmakers have been reluctant to boost the salary because of the bill to raise the pension of legislators by 300 percent in 1989.

"That resulted in a clamor," Raggio said, adding that he voted against it.

After it passed, the public uproar prompted lawmakers to convene in special session and repeal the law in November 1989.

People elected to the Legislature "give up time and money to serve." Raggio said there should be an incentive to serve rather than a disincentive.

"A lot of people can't afford to serve," he said.

Sen. Dennis Nolan, D-Las Vegas, said he had to repay the Legislative Counsel Bureau $1,100 at the last session because of an overdraw on his travel and living allowance. He said lawmakers will be out of money on the travel allowance this session by the third week of the session.

Each lawmaker gets a travel allowance of $6,800, which is intended to allow legislators to return home on weekends. Each legislator from outside the Carson City area can use up to $600 a month out of that travel allowance for lodging.

Each lawmaker also receives $91 per diem for each of the 120 days of the session. That adds up to $10,920 for the session. Combined with the current 60 days salary, that means each legislator is paid $25,520, not counting the various allowances.

Those in leadership and who are chairmen of committees receive an added $900 each for the session.

And as per the Constitution, the lieutenant governor who presides over the Senate and the speaker of the Assembly each get an extra $2 per day. Those extra dollars to the presiding members would be eliminated under the proposed constitutional amendment.

The resolution supporting the raise also calls for the elimination of the $60 allowance for postage, newspapers and telecommunications, but would instead let the Legislature set a "reasonable amount" for these expenses.

"Nobody makes a great deal of money on the living allowance," Raggio said.

Each lawmaker also is allowed $2,800 for telephone expenses and receives free state letterhead paper and envelopes.