Saturday, June 11, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

TAKES EFFECT IN 2007: Guinn signs bill raising officials' pay

Salaries of governor, attorney general among those that will rise 20 percent

CARSON CITY -- Salaries for the governor, attorney general and four other top state elected officials will increase by about 20 percent in 2007.

Gov. Kenny Guinn on Friday signed Assembly Bill 462, putting the raises into effect.

Michael Hillerby, Guinn's chief of staff, said Guinn signed the bill in part because the six officials have not had salary increases in eight years.

He said none of the increases will affect Guinn or any other of the top officials. The terms of all six expire at the end of 2006. The officers elected in the November 2006 election will assume their seats in January 2007 and receive the higher pay.

"He wants to make it easier for people to serve in public office," Hillerby said. "Their salaries have not kept up."

Under the new salary law, officers will be paid the following:

• $141,000 a year for the governor, who now receives $117,000 a year.

• $133,000 a year for the attorney general, who now receives $110,000 a year.

• $60,000 a year for the lieutenant governor, who now receives $50,000 a year.

• $97,000 a year for the controller, treasurer and secretary of state, who now receive $80,000 a year.

The strongest advocates in the Legislature for the salary increases were Assembly Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, and Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas.

Raggio said during floor debate last week that some people oppose salary increases on the grounds that people knew what the job paid when they ran for office.

"If that argument is used, then the president of the United States should receive the same salary as President George Washington," he added.

Arberry introduced the bill because he believes some qualified people will not run for office because the salaries are too low.

Besides the salary increases, all six constitutional officers will receive a cost-of-living pay boost every four years, starting in 2011. That would be equivalent to the percentage of pay increases granted state employees during the previous four years.

Legislators, who are paid $130 a day, also will receive a cost-of-living increase equivalent to the pay increases they granted state employees, starting in 2007.

Earlier, legislators approved Assembly Joint Resolution 11, which lets voters decide in the 2006 election whether to double the salaries now paid legislators.

Lawmakers now receive $7,800 for each session but also are paid a $91 per day living allowance. Legislators have not received a salary increase since 1985.

Guinn also signed Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley's Assembly Bill 249, which forbids car dealers from engaging in "yo-yo" car deals.

That occurs when a dealer offers a buyer an unusually low interest rate on a new car, takes the buyer's car as a trade-in and allows the buyer to drive the new vehicle before financing is complete. Then, a few days later, the dealer calls the buyer and says the financing fell through, the trade-in car is gone and the buyer must pay a much higher interest rate.

During hearings, Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said she has been working with good car dealers to end the practice. She said the state has not done much help to victims. The law makes the Department of Motor Vehicles responsible for handling and investigating complaints.