Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Isle lawmakers meet
for 60 legislative daysQuestion: When is the state Legislature in session? What are the salaries of representatives and senators?
What are the terms of office? Are they given staff members to work in their office? What are the salaries and benefits of these staffers? What are their job titles and job description? Who determines their qualifications?
Answer: The Hawaii Legislature convenes each year at 10 a.m. on the third Wednesday in January.
Each regular session is limited to 60 "legislative days," which excludes Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, a mandatory five-day recess between the 20th and 40th days, and any other recesses agreed to by both the House and the Senate.
A calendar denoting the recesses is issued before the start of each session.
The Senate's 25 members are elected to four-year terms; the House's 51 representatives, to two-year terms. The Senate president and House speaker are each paid $37,000 a year; all other legislators, $32,000 a year.
During each regular session, lawmakers also are given an annual allowance of $5,000 for incidental expenses connected with their legislative duties. Neighbor islanders receive an additional $80 a day for lodging and incidental expenses, excluding travel expenses. On top of that, any lawmaker who goes on official legislative business away from his/her island of legal residence for more than a day receives an allowance of $80 a day, or $130 if they go out of state.
Legislators are not given staff -- they receive a monthly stipend to hire as many or as few part-timers as they wish. Each decides how to split the pay and determines whom to hire.
Senators are given about $300 to $500/$600 a day during the session to pay for staff, with committee chairmen given the higher allowance, according to Senate Clerk Paul Kawaguchi.
When the Legislature is not in session, each senator is allowed one office manager whose salary is paid out of Senate funds, with the salary set by the Senate president, he said.
In the House, each representative, whether a committee chair or not, but excluding the finance, judiciary and consumer protection committee chairs, is given $4,500 a month for staff during the session.
The only stipulation is that no one person can earn more than $2,300 a month, said House Clerk Patrician Mau-Shimizu.
The chairmen of the finance, judiciary and consumer protection committees are allowed to hire additional staff, with the House speaker, after discussions, proposing how much these extra staffers can be paid. "That changes every year, because of the needs," Mau-Shimizu said.
For example, last year, the judiciary and consumer protection chairs were allowed to hire one extra researcher and attorney, she said, while the staffing needs of the finance committee keep "increasing year after year because the budget problems don't go away."
Each representative also is allowed to have one full-time office manager during the year, paid out of House funds at a set salary, and serving "co-terminus" with the representative, she said.
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