California legislators cut state workers’ pay. Just 5 of 120 requested cuts for themselves
Five California lawmakers requested pay cuts for themselves similar to those they imposed on state government workers, according to the State Controller’s Office.
The 120-member Legislature approved a budget in June that reduced most state workers’ pay to help close the projected $54 billion budget deficit caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
Four members of the Assembly and one state senator requested pay cuts for themselves. They are Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo; and Assembly members Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego; Susan Eggman, D-Stockton; Todd Gloria, D-San Diego; and Christy Smith, D-Santa Clarita.
The pay cuts went into effect in July for workers and for the legislators who requested them.
A commission made up of people from outside government sets California lawmakers’ pay each year. The California Citizens Compensation Commission in May froze lawmakers’ salaries but didn’t reduce them. The commission said it didn’t have enough information to impose a salary reduction.
Most California legislators make $114,877 per year. They also receive per diem payments based on the federal rate for travel to Sacramento. For 2020, it’s $206 per day.
In addition to legislators, the commission sets pay for the governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer, attorney general, insurance commissioner, superintendent of public instruction, controller and secretary of state, along with the four members of the Board of Equalization.
Newsom when he proposed cutting state workers’ pay in May said he and his staff would participate in the reductions. To do so, he and the other officers had to request reductions in writing to the State Controller’s Office.
By payday in July, State Controller Betty Yee was the only one of the statewide elected officers to request the reduction, taking the cut at the same time as the workforce.
The rest of the eight elected constitutional officers requested retroactive pay cuts last week, after The Sacramento Bee asked why they hadn’t taken the reductions along with rank-and-file workers.
Board of Equalization members Antonio Vazquez, Malia Cohen and Mike Schaefer also requested reductions, Controller’s Office spokeswoman Jennifer Hanson said Monday.
California voters approved the Citizens Compensation Commission in 1990, along with changes to lobbying, gifts and open meetings rules. The language creating the commission gives it “exclusive authority to set the annual salaries, and the medical, dental, insurance, and other similar benefits,” but individual legislators and officers may request reductions.
Unions for California state workers negotiated different agreements for temporary pay cuts with the Newsom administration. The deals generally give workers days off in exchange for taking pay cuts that were equivalent to missing two days of work every month. That’s about 9.23% of a worker’s wages.
The deals offset the impact on workers’ take-home pay by suspending a paycheck deduction that funds workers’ retiree health care. The percentage of the contribution varies among job categories.
The four members of the Assembly requested 10% pay cuts, Hanson said. Smith also declined a pay increase legislators received in December 2019, she said.
Sen. Hill requested a 15% pay cut, Hanson said.
This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "California legislators cut state workers’ pay. Just 5 of 120 requested cuts for themselves."