Lingle aides due
for pay hikeA new panel convenes to review
the salaries of top state officials
The job of governor appears to be in line for a pay raise, but Gov. Linda Lingle would have to win re-election in 2006 to get it under a new system to determine what top state administrators should get for their work.
Her top aides and members of her Cabinet, however, could see a bigger paycheck starting July 1. The pay hike would also apply to the deputy superintendent of education.
The newly created Executive Salary Commission met for the first time this week to begin a process of recommending what could be the first salary increases in 14 years for the governor, lieutenant governor, Cabinet members and other top state officials. It agreed to ask for recommendations from the Lingle administration.
"We are not going to be recommending any dollar amounts," Lingle said yesterday. "We're going to describe to them the work that we do and ask them to do a fair appraisal."
The panel's pay recommendation to the 2004 Legislature takes effect unless both the House and Senate approve a resolution to reject it.
Lawmakers had the opportunity this year to reject a pay increase for state legislators that was set by the Legislative Salary Commission in March, but did not do so.
The governor now earns $94,780 annually; the lieutenant governor and the governor's chief of staff get $90,041; department heads earn $85,302; and their deputies, between $72,886 and $77,966.
Three weeks after taking office Dec. 2 as Hawaii's first Republican governor in 40 years, Lingle called upon the Legislature to create the independent commission to set salaries for top executive positions.
As she launched her search for Cabinet members, she said the relatively low pay compared with the private sector made it difficult to attract top candidates with the expertise to run a state department because for most, "in a bad year they're making a quarter of a million dollars."
The Democratic-controlled Legislature approved the bill creating the commission, although it met with resistance from Senate Republicans.
Senate Minority Leader Fred Hemmings (R, Lanikai-Waimanalo) said yesterday that the opposition came at a time of projected state deficits, but now the economy has improved. "I now wholeheartedly support executive pay raises," he said.
The five-member panel named by House Speaker Calvin Say, Senate President Robert Bunda and Chief Justice Ronald Moon held its inaugural meeting Tuesday, at which Raymond Fujii, administrator for the Painting and Decorating Contractors Association of Hawaii and president of Account Executives Inc., was elected chairman.
