State commission panel says Palin should get a $25,000 a year increase

A new state commission says the Alaska governor ought to get a $25,000 a year raise.

Asked to figure out how much Alaska should pay its top officials, the group recommends pay hikes for the lieutenant governor, department heads and legislators too.

"We need the best people we can get to do some pretty tough jobs against some often incredibility well-financed, single-minded corporate and individual interests," said Rick Halford, a former legislator and chairman of the new State Officers Compensation Commission.

Deciding how much to pay themselves is always a thorny proposition for politicians who answer to an ever-skeptical public. Today's national recession and relatively low oil prices wouldn't make it any easier.

Enter the new five-member commission, created by the Legislature earlier this year to take the decision out of lawmakers' hands. The members are appointed by the governor -- with two selected from lists recommended by legislative leaders.

The panel came up with a list of recommendations over the weekend and is looking for the public to weigh in at a meeting Thursday at 9 a.m. at the Anchorage Legislative Information Office.

Among the commission's suggestions:

• Raise the governor's salary 20 percent, from $125,000 to $150,000.

• Raise the salary of the lieutenant governor and state commissioners to $135,000 a year. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell currently makes $100,00 a year, while commissioners are paid between $122,640 to $127,240 a year, according to the commission's numbers.

• Give all state legislators a flat annual salary of $50,400 while doing away with a per-diem lawmakers get for working on state business when the Legislature isn't in session. That would amount to an overall pay hike as well, based on lawmakers' pay in 2007.
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