Bill would raise lawmakers' pay

      CARSON CITY -- A bill increasing lawmaker pay by 42 percent to $11,100 for each legislative session was introduced Thursday by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.
      Assembly Bill 491 also would provide lawmakers with a $350-a-month allowance for expenses between sessions. The money could be used for everything from secretarial assistance to travel.
      It also would increase lawmakers' pensions by 20 percent to $30 a month per year of service, and allow lawmakers to retire at age 60 with only five years of service instead of 10.
      Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry, D-North Las Vegas, said most of the proposal mirrors the recommendations of a citizens panel appointed to review the salary issue in 1994. The only difference is the panel recommended retirement eligibility after eight years of service.
      "This won't make us wealthy," Arberry said. "The pay is so low now a lot of people can't afford to serve in the Legislature. This is supposed to be a citizen Legislature and I want to keep it that way."
      The measure received an enthusiastic endorsement from Albert Johns, a free-lance Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist who was chairman of the commission that came up with the proposal.
      A bill implementing the plan was introduced in the 1995 legislative session but failed to gain approval.
      "These guys are underpaid," Johns said. "They're only paid for 60 days every two years. No session has lasted for only 60 days for years and years."
      Johns said the nine-member commission was unanimous in its support of the proposal, and that lawmakers should rely on its work if they are concerned about potential voter backlash.
      "A commission of duly appointed citizens recommended this," he said. "I think they deserve it."
      The $3,300-per-session pay increase from the $7,800 lawmakers get now would not take effect until they stood for re-election. Most of the 63 lawmakers will be up for election in 1998, but some senators won't run again until 2000.
      The last pay increase for lawmakers came in 1985, when compensation for a session increased from $6,240 to $7,800.
      The $7,800 lawmakers receive is based on a rate of $130 a day for the first 60 days of the session. Lawmakers are limited by the constitution from being paid for more than 60 days. The new pay rate would be $185 a day for the first 60 days.
      Lawmakers also receive $70 a day for expenses for each day of the legislative session.
      The bill is written to take into account a potential decision by voters to have the Legislature meet annually rather than every other year as is done now.
      A proposal to ask voters whether the Legislature should meet for 120 days in odd-numbered years and 45 days in even-numbered years has passed the Assembly.
      The pay bill would allow lawmakers to collect the full $11,100 in the years with longer sessions, and $185 a day for each day of work in the shorter sessions. A 45-day session would earn lawmakers $8,325.