JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A phased-in 5% pay raise for Missouri lawmakers and statewide elected officials was locked in Monday.
In Missouri, an independent citizens commission sets the pay scale for lawmakers and other top elected officeholders. The panel’s recommendations set in automatically unless two-thirds of the Legislature votes to block them.
State lawmakers missed their Monday deadline to reject the pay hike, meaning the raises will kick in beginning in July. An attempt to block the raises failed to get enough support in the House last week.
Most lawmakers are currently paid about $36,000 a year and will get a $1,800 raise spread out over two years.
Gov. Mike Parson is getting a roughly $6,800 raise over two years, which will his yearly salary to about $140,600. The lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer and attorney general also will get 5% salary raises.
Missouri lawmakers for more than a decade have blocked pay raises proposed by the citizens panel.
The last time a commission made salary recommendations, including raises for lawmakers and statewide officials, was in 2016. Then-Gov. Eric Greitens personally sat down with individual lawmakers to pressure them to vote against raises, which were ultimately blocked.
Greitens didn’t appoint any members to the commission in 2018.
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