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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Jason Metsa (DFL)

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House passes bill to remove state lawmakers' power to set their own pay

Thursday, May 8, 2014

ST. PAUL, MN – Today, the Minnesota House of Representatives finalized a constitutional amendment on the 2016 ballot to remove state lawmakers’ power to set their own pay.

Last year, state lawmakers passed HF 1823, the bill creating the amendment. Today, the House passed HF 3169, which takes the following steps:

  • Adds a title for the constitutional ballot question: “Remove Lawmakers’ Power to Set Their Own Pay”
     
  • Amends the proposed constitutional amendment by stating that none of the members of the citizens council may be the spouse of a current legislator
     
  • Changes the ballot question to refer to “state lawmakers”
     
  • Contains statutory language creating the Legislative Salary Council contained in the proposed constitutional amendment

The constitutional amendment language approved by the House would ask voters:

“Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to remove state lawmakers’ power to set their own salaries, and instead establish an independent, citizens-only council to prescribe salaries for lawmakers?”

“The people of Minnesota ought to be the ones determining who sets legislative pay levels,” said State Representative Jason Metsa (DFL – Virginia), chief author of the bill creating the ballot question. “We need to let voters have a say on this issue and remove the conflict of interest in our current system. This is about increasing transparency for our constituents and turning over the authority to them.”

Under the Minnesota Constitution, legislators are currently in charge of setting their own compensation. The 2016 constitutional amendment gives voters the ability to weigh in on this inherent conflict of interest.

If voters pass the amendment, legislators will no longer set their own salary and other forms of compensation. Instead, a compensation council of 16 citizens (8 people appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and 8 people appointed by the Governor) who would set legislative compensation. No former or current legislators or lobbyists could serve on the council and none of the members of the council may be the spouse of a current legislator.

The compensation council could choose to increase or decrease legislative pay, taking that decision out of the hands of state legislators as is currently prescribed in Minnesota’s Constitution.

The bill makes conforming changes to current law establishing the Compensation Council, which would go into effect if the Constitutional Amendment is adopted by the voters. The Compensation Council would still make recommendations to the Legislature for constitutional officers and the judicial branch, which would need to be passed by the Legislature to go into effect.