Members of the legislature will receive a pay raise of 12% this month. With the raise, they will make $110,880. Of course, this is augmented by a ‘per dium’ payment that they receive to cover the additional costs of travel and residency near the capitol This amount to $153 a day when they are in session.
Too much money? Too little money? That debate can rage on – though if you have full-time legislative, you need to give them full–time pay. I’ll let you readers decide what is fair pay. The legislators do not decide their own pay, however. Their compensation is set by an obscure commission, not selected by the voters.
More newsworthy than the raise is "the list" – who took the raise and who turned it away. Note, legislators took the raise, but have said they will donate the raise to charity (presumably keeping the tax deduction). Those folks did not make the list.
- Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced.
- Assemblyman Juan Arambula, D-Fresno.
- Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park.
- Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher, R-Brea.
- Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate.
- Assemblywoman Shirley Horton, R-Bonita.
- Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Santa Clara.
- Assembly Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield.
- Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi, R-Lodi.
- Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks.
- Assemblyman George Plescia, R-La Jolla.
- Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Chatsworth.
- Assemblyman Juan Vargas, D-San Diego.
- Assemblywoman Mimi Walters, R-Laguna Niguel.