No raises for top state officials

Throughout his gubernatorial campaign last year, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. maintained that he did not want a pay raise. Wednesday night, he got his wish.

By the same token, no raises came to more than two dozen other state executive officials after HB288 failed to pass by midnight. That bill would have set new salaries for the state's full-time elected officers, including Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, and increased salary ranges for 26 state commissioners and departmental executive directors.

Under the proposed bill, Herbert would have received a raise of more than 20 percent because of a change that sets his salary at 95 percent of the governor's. Ironically, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who would have received a more than 10-percent raise to $95,600, will actually get an even bigger raise because of a different bill, HB128, which sets his salary at 95 percent of the governor's. His new salary will be $96,520.

The bill failed because of an amendment made by the Senate Wednesday evening which provided the Commissioner of Agriculture and Food a state vehicle for personal use, a benefit already given to four other executive officers. Coincidentally, the commissioner is former Sen. Leonard Blackham, who was appointed to fill the post by Huntsman shortly before this year's session began Jan. 17. Another Senate amendment increased the pay range for the Executive Director of the Department of Commerce from a maximum of $92,400 to $118,000.

After the House refused to accept the amendments and the Senate refused to recede from their amendments, legislative leaders were left scrambling during the waning minutes of the session to come to a resolution. During a conference committee with less than 15 minutes left in the session, however, any hope for a compromise was shot when Sens. Bill Hickman, R-St. George, Tom Hatch, R-Panguitch, and Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake, refused to remove the amendment authorizing Blackham's vehicle.

Arguing that Blackham needed a car because his job required him to travel throughout the state, Hickman said that "the long memories" of some House members should not eliminate a sensible and potentially cost-saving benefit, since Blackham would still use state motor pool vehicles to travel.

Although the House members of the conference committee — which consists of three people from each body who are appointed to try and resolve disputes over amended bills that the House and Senate cannot agree on — said it would never pass, they agreed to approve the bill with the amendment. That approved committee report came too late, however, and never made it to the House for a vote.