Minnesota legislators salaries slated for a 45 percent bump

Next year’s Minnesota legislators are going to get a 45 percent raise.

An independent council, created by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, will raise state lawmakers’ salary from $31,100 to $45,000.

“Since it is a citizen-Legislature, I think we have to be conscientious and not give them such a raise that the normal average citizen would say, ‘Wow’,” said Diana Burlison, one of the members of the council.

Lawmakers’ pay has not risen for nearly two decades. That’s in large part because lawmakers feared voter backlash if they gave themselves a bump. But a constitutional amendment approved last year took the power to set legislator salaries away from the lawmakers and gave it to the new citizen-driven council. The constitutional amendment passed with 76 percent of the vote in November.

Read more: http://www.twincities.com/2017/03/10/minnesota-legislators-salaries-slated-for-a-45-percent-raise/