The 104 part-time Utah legislators should not get a pay raise next year.
So says House Minority Leader David Litvack, D-Salt Lake, who introduced a bill Wednesday that would keep lawmakers' daily pay at $117, like it is this 45-day session.
If legislators don't act, they would automatically get a pay raise July 1 to $130 a day — their old pay level. That is the recommendation of the Legislative Compensation Commission.
A law passed in 2001 says that pending other action, legislators' pay automatically goes to the level recommended every two years by the commission. Late last year, commission members said it is proper that lawmakers' pay go back to where it was two years ago.
At that time, lawmakers cut their own pay by the same percent that state budgets were trimmed. Most state employees got no pay raise this year, and some had to take unpaid furlough days, as well.
Most state employees won't get a pay raise next budget year, either, and some may have to take furlough days again.
No to mention the fact that many state employees have been laid off, and therefore some of their former coworkers have faced increased workloads because of it. Furthermore, most state employees are nervously following the legislative session to see how much their department is going to get cut, resulting in new rounds of labor cuts.
-Bob
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