State Politicians Get Pay Raises

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - A citizen commission that sets elected officials' salaries has voted to increase pay for Washington lawmakers by 2 percent annually for the next two years.

The News Tribune reports the salary commission voted to approve the raises Wednesday.  The salary commission decided to award lower raises of 1 percent per year to statewide elected officials, including the governor and attorney general.

Currently, a rank-and-file member of the state Legislature makes $46,839 per year.  Those legislators' annual salaries will increase to $47,776 in September, and to $48,731 in September 2018.  The 1 percent annual increases will mean Gov. Jay Inslee’s annual salary will increase from $173,617 to $177,107

The paper reported Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz will get a 2 percent raise each of the next two years because the Commission said her job  which involves coordinating wildfire-fighting efforts merited a higher increase

Lawmakers are currently in the midst of a 30-day special session after they were unable to approve a new two-year state budget during their regular session, which lasted 105 days.  They haven't been able to agree on a new two-year operating budget without going into overtime since 2009.