Amendment sought on lawmakers' pay

A House Democrat wants to amend the state constitution to give legislators an annual salary and ban all gifts from registered lobbyists.

But the chances that Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, can get two-thirds vote for approval from his House and Senate colleagues are uncertain at best.

Legislators routinely refuse to even disclose more of the gifts they take from lobbyists, much less ban them.

"I believe I have a good argument," Hansen said. The two issues have bounced around the Legislature for years, and combining them in a constitutional amendment settles them once and for all, plus lets the people speak on both the important issues, he said.

"This is a constitutional amendment, which means it goes to the people" in a general election. "I believe we should just let the people themselves decide this."

At various times, the Legislative Compensation Commission has suggested that lawmakers take an annual salary. But commissioners can only recommend the change; they lack the power to install annual pay themselves.

Lawmakers get a per-day salary of $130. The commission has recommended that starting next year they get $140 per day during the 45-day general session, interim study days and for any other authorized work day, like a special session or task force meeting.

Legislators can lower the commission's recommendation or decline to take any pay hike. They cannot raise their daily pay above what the commission recommends. The commission's recommended pay hike takes effect automatically if legislators don't act on it.

Lawmakers also receive a daily $54 per diem for meals, a $90 a day allotment for hotels — whether legislators stay at home or in a hotel — and 48.5 cents per mile reimbursement for some of their commuting costs. They set their per diem, although to usually mirror federal rates.

For 2006, the only full year of legislative salary data available (at a daily salary of $120 a day), the average legislator's yearly salary came out to $8,537. But that doesn't include hotel, per diem or mileage.

Still, almost all 104 part-time legislators say that they give much more of their time when they are out of session than they are paid for — and so on a per-day basis they aren't paid for that considerable work.

"I see our work in the session as just tying up the loose ends of all work we do out of session, as we all do so much work on our own time out of session," Hansen said.

If a lobbyist wants to take some of his time out of session to talk to him about an issue, and wants to take him to lunch and buy that lunch, "he is imposing on my personal time — taking up my time — and I don't see anything wrong with taking that lunch."

But if lawmakers were paid an annual salary — so they were always on the clock, so to speak — then it makes sense to Hansen that the lobbyist not be able to buy a legislator a meal.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com