Colorado Lawmakers Mull Big Pay Hikes For Elected Officers

DENVER (AP) — Colorado lawmakers hustled Monday to steer through a bill to dramatically raise the pay of elected officials, including themselves.

The bill cleared the Senate late Monday night on an unrecorded voice vote. The bill, introduced in the last week of the 2015 lawmaking session, required a vote by the full Senate by Monday in order to reach the governor's desk by the end of the lawmaking session Wednesday.

The bill hikes the pay of many elected officials, some by almost a third.

The governor would get a 30 percent pay hike, from $90,000 a year to about $117,000 a year. State lawmakers would see pay raises of 27 percent, from $30,000 a year to about $38,000 a year. The lieutenant governor and other constitutional officers such as state treasurer would also get raises.

Most of the pay raises wouldn't take effect until 2019.

Supporters point out that the offices mentioned in the bill haven't had pay raises in almost 20 years. The governor's pay is currently among the nation's lowest for that position. In some cases, deputies and analysts who work for public officials earn more than the officials themselves.

"It's become difficult to get quality people who are willing to run for office because they'd take pay cuts," said Sen. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton.

But not all supported the last-minute effort to boost politicians' pay.

"If we had better results in state government I'd be more respectful of a raise for everybody," said Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton. "I don't think we've earned that increase."

Lawmakers have little time to debate the pay raises. The bill was introduced last Thursday, giving it less than a week to make it through both chambers of the state Legislature.

By Kristen Wyatt, AP Writer

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