Cabinet pay too low, Gov. Linda Lingle said the salary cap on top state positions has hindered her recruitment efforts, so she would like the Legislature to create a commission to review and set pay levels for department directors and even the governor.
says governor
Lingle would like to see a
special panel set salary levelsStaff and news reports
"Most of the top people that I talk to, on a bad year they're making a quarter of a million dollars" in the private sector, she said yesterday. Top salaries for the governor's Cabinet members are $85,302.
Her call for a salary commission was welcomed by some lawmakers.
"I would think that it would be high time to look at the governor's salary and to look at salaries for department heads," said Senate President Robert Bunda (D, Kaena-Wahiawa-Pupukea).
He noted a commission for legislative salaries, appointed by the governor, was formed last month.
Senate Minority Leader Fred Hemmings (R, Lanikai-Waimanalo) said he endorses Lingle's plan.
Lingle noted that positions exempt from the state's salary cap command pay many times that of Cabinet members. They include $442,000 for University of Hawaii President Evan Dobelle, $240,000 for Hawaii Tourism Authority head Rex Johnson and $150,000 for schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto.
"It is very difficult to attract the caliber of the people you want at $85,000 a year," she said, calling the cap "unrealistic and artificial."
The governor's salary, last increased in 1991, is $94,780.
Lingle, who has been in office for nearly three weeks, acknowledged that a salary commission would not help in her ongoing effort to build a new administration. She said a majority of the people named to her Cabinet thus far are taking a big cut in pay but are willing to do so in hopes of making Hawaii better.
The salary commission needs to have the final say "because then you eliminate the politics of it. It's very difficult for politicians to agree to salary increases, for themselves or anyone else," Lingle said.
A separate commission should be set up for the Judiciary, she said.
Lingle said the salary commission members would be named by the governor with confirmation by the Legislature. Its decisions would be binding. Decisions of the salary commission for lawmakers can be rejected with a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.
The Cabinet salaries that Lingle said are unrealistically low were also a sore point with former Gov. Ben Cayetano, who sought a substantial increase last year that was rejected by lawmakers who also rejected a proposed salary commission.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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