Representative Mike Bernskoetter (rear, center)
A House committee is considering Tuesday a resolution that would reject a 5% pay increase for Missouri legislators and a 16% hike for statewide elected officials. House Concurrent Resolution 4, filed by Representative Mike Bernskoetter (R-Jefferson City), would block the pay recommendations made by the Missouri Citizens’ Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials.
House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty (D-Kansas City) is against the proposed increases.
“We already see that we are having some budget challenges,” says McCann Beatty. “I don’t believe that increases to the legislature or to the executive branch should be our priorities right now, and we also have to consider that our state employees are some of the lowest-paid state employees and if we’ve got dollars to increase salaries that is probably where that priority should be.”
Representative Gail McCann-Beatty (foreground)
The committee is expected to vote on the proposal Wednesday morning.
The resolution must be approved by two-thirds in each chamber and by the governor before February 1 or the recommendations are automatically enacted.
