State legislators, who last got a pay raise in 1991, make that much in basic salary. It's about what clerks or janitors on the state payroll might make, says Pam Varni, executive director of the Legislative Affairs Agency. Legislators also get living expense money of $165 per day when they pick up and move to Juneau for a few months each year and must maintain two households.
And they can claim variable amounts of money for every day they work four hours or more when the Legislature is not in session.
That interim pay, called "long term per diem," is on the honor system. A half dozen legislators claim enough between-sessions work to boost their total compensation to more than $50,000. Some claim little or nothing. Including long term per diem in 2007, the average legislator brought home $35,000.
A new state commission has recommended doing away with the honor-system per diem between sessions, and raising legislative pay to a flat $50,400.
That makes sense. It treats all legislators the same, and avoids abuse by legislators who may be tempted to claim more work time than they actually put in.
As Rep. Mike Doogan has said, better pay should lead to a more diverse group of lawmakers. Now, legislative service is easiest for financially secure business people or retirees.
Legislators maintain offices and work on bills year-round. They go to community meetings. They are frequently called into special sessions that last for weeks on end, besides the annual regular session from January to April. Their current pay rate is woefully small.
The job will continue to be a sacrifice for some legislators who earn more at their regular jobs, but we hope nobody's in it for the money.
The compensation commission, a group appointed by the governor, also recommended pay increases for high-ranking state officials.
The governor's pay would rise from $125,000 to $150,000. The new salary would be in line with other governors. Currently, Gov. Sarah Palin's salary is in the mid-range of her peers across the country. The lieutenant governor and cabinet officers would get 90 percent of the governor's salary.
Those raises may not be popular, but they're within reason. When looking for department heads, a governor looks at people who may make a lot more money in their professional careers.
Palin says she wouldn't accept the raise for this term. It would be better, though, if she took the raise and quit claiming per diem for times when she's working out of her own house in Wasilla.
The commission's recommendations are preliminary. A public hearing is scheduled Thursday at 9 a.m. and at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 10, at legislative information offices statewide. The final recommendations go into effect unless the Legislature acts to reject them.
While the proposed raises for legislators and state executives may not be popular, they will help draw the talented people we need to run the multi-billion dollar enterprise known as the State of Alaska.
BOTTOM LINE: Legislators and state executives should be better paid; legislators, particularly, are long overdue for a raise.
Vets' health
Begich backs a new way to help
It could be the best health insurance card in the country.
Taking a page from New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Alaska Sen.-elect Mark Begich has called for a new way to deliver health care to veterans of the U.S. armed forces.
The "Heroes' Health Care Card" would be given to all military personnel on leaving the service. The card would entitle them to care at any medical facility in the country, not just at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics.
The VA already has cooperative agreements with other health care providers. But the beauty and simplicity of the veterans' card would be that the choices would be up to the veteran. He or she would be able to choose the provider and the VA would cover the costs. Veterans wouldn't be subject to VA backlogs for care.
According to Begich, such a card "doesn't take anything away from the existing system ... it augments it."
Veterans who don't live close to VA facilities wouldn't have to worry about spending a lot of money on travel and hotels or imposing on family members. In Alaska, rural veterans might skip an expensive trip to Anchorage for a much cheaper trip to Bethel or Kotzebue for care closer to home and family.
More than one devil lurks in the details -- would such a system use preferred providers to hold down costs? Would it cost more? How much? Would it drain money and patients from the VA system of hospitals and clinics? Would there be potential problems in coordinating records of care? Would such a program -- heaven forbid -- create more levels of bureaucracy? Would it make sense to limit the "use any provider" option to vets who are more than, say, 100 miles from a VA facility, or where a strapped VA facility couldn't offer immediate care?
Those questions and more would need to be answered before the first card was issued.
But the idea is promising. Serve your country, and your country will make sure you have the health care you need, where and from whom you want to receive it.
BOTTOM LINE: Veterans' health care card has great promise; Congress should look into it.