Pay hike for state leaders: Davis rejects 6% raise voted by salary panel ...

A state salary-setting commission, declaring that California needs to keep pace with other large states, voted Thursday to give better than 6 percent pay raises to the governor and other statewide elected officials.

Under the new order, the governor's pay will jump from $165,000 to $175,000 a year beginning Dec. 4. Two years ago, the same commission hiked the governor's salary from $131,040 to $165,000.

But Gov. Gray Davis quickly issued a statement saying he won't take the extra money. The governor already voluntarily takes 5 percent less than his authorized salary of $165,000.

"I appreciate the confidence in the office of the governor expressed today by the California Citizens Compensation Commission, but I respectfully decline to accept the pay raise," Davis said in a statement.

Other pay raises ordered by the panel include a jump from $140,250 to $148,750 for the state attorney general and schools chief, and an increase from $132,000 to $140,000 for the state controller, treasurer and insurance commissioner.

The politicians in those offices will also now have to decide whether they will accept all or part of the extra pay beginning in December.

The voter-created pay panel, which has sparked controversy over some of its past salary decisions, did not raise the $99,000 base salary paid to the state's 120 legislators or the higher amounts paid to top Assembly and Senate majority leaders.

But the commission did raise legislative minority leaders' salaries by as much as 7.5 percent -- to as high as $113,850 -- to match the pay of their majority counterparts. However, one of the four Republicans currently holding those offices faces term limits, and the other three won't necessarily retain their posts after the 2001-2002 Legislature convenes in December.

Most state legislators also receive $25,000 or more of yearly tax-free expense allowances that the pay panel doesn't control.

Commissioners supporting the raises said California needs to keep pace with such other big states as New York, which pays its governor $179,000 a year, according to commission figures.

"I think we should try to keep salary levels up with the times," said Claude Brinegar, a retired oil industry executive who chairs the pay panel and made the motion for the raises for the governor and other officials.

But another commission member, Nicholas Bavaro, a benefits consultant from Modesto, argued strongly against the salary hikes.

"I quite frankly think our Legislature as well as the governor are overpaid," Bavaro declared.

Ted Costa of the taxpayers' group People's Advocate said he didn't begrudge the higher salary for whoever holds the governor's office.

But Costa, who has repeatedly criticized the pay commission's salary orders and called for the panel to be abolished, questioned the other new raises.

"I don't know that the rest of them are deserving of these types of salaries and I continue to believe that legislators are still way, way overpaid," he said.

Some commission members took sharp exception to suggestions that they operate at the beck and call of the politicians for whom they set salary levels.

The panel voted 5-2 for just over 6 percent raises for the governor, other statewide officials and Board of Equalization members, and then voted for the raises for the legislative minority leaders.

The commission also rejected a Bavaro proposal to postpone any final votes on raises for at least 30 days to allow the public time to react.

Commissioner Jim Green, a retired Bay Area labor official who voted against Bavaro's proposal and for the new raises, said the commissioners already were aware of public feelings.

"I do sample public opinion in my area," he said. "If I do what I think is right, I will take the criticism."

Voters created the pay commission as part of Proposition 112 in 1990. Placed on the ballot by the Legislature, the proposition also enacted wide-ranging legislative ethics reforms, including a ban on outside speaking fees. Previously, legislators had to vote on their own pay raises, which Proposition 112 backers called a conflict of interest but others have billed as a worthy check and balance.

On the pay commission, all seven members are appointed by the governor to six-year terms. Members receive $100 per meeting plus expenses.

All current members were appointed or reappointed by former Gov. Pete Wilson.

In 1998, the commission ordered highly controversial pay raises of up to 34 percent forstate elected officials.

The commission meeting, which lasted less than two hours, was held before a sparse audience in the Sacramento City Council chambers. Members of the public who testified said the commission had given too sizable raises in the past, should do more to publicize its meetings, and should hold its meetings at times and places more convenient to working people.

Connie Lentsch of Sacramento called for pay increases to be put to a vote of the people.

"This commission should be abolished. It is little more than another political patronage scheme," she said.

But Brinegar said, "Our loyalties are not to the governor. Our loyalties are to what's best for the state."