The Alaska state Senate on Friday unanimously rejected a report from a three-member panel that would have implemented automatic pay adjustments for lawmakers, the governor and cabinet members based on the cost of living.
If passed by the House, the rejection would invalidate the recommendations approved recently by the State Officers Compensation Commissions, whose members are selected by legislative leaders and the governor.
According to state law, the commission is supposed to recommend pay adjustments — if needed — every other year for the state’s top political officials. The recommendations go into effect automatically unless rejected by both the House and Senate.
But the recent commission report sought to render future recommendations largely unnecessary by making pay adjustments go into effect automatically, every other year, based on the Anchorage consumer price index, which rises with inflation.
Two years ago, the commission forwarded large pay increases for the governor, cabinet members and lawmakers, while largely sidestepping the state’s public notice laws, after the governor fired all existing commission members and replaced them with new ones. The 2023 recommendations, which weren’t rejected by lawmakers, gave the Legislature a 67% pay raise, and department heads received a 35% pay raise. The increases came after several years in which pay adjustments were not approved.
Senate members said Friday that it was not the time to consider additional raises, given the state’s tight fiscal outlook.
“You quickly run your budget in an out-of-control mode when you start indexing things,” said Sen. Bert Stedman, a Sitka Republican who co-chairs the Senate Finance Committee. “By setting an example of the commissioner, the governor and the Legislature inflation-indexing their salaries — it’s just the wrong thing to do.”
All present members of the Senate voted in favor of the bill rejecting the recommendations. Sen. Donny Olson, a Golovin Democrat, has been absent from the Capitol since suffering a “medical event” on Jan. 22.
The bill rejecting the recommendations heads next to the House for consideration.