State misses deadline in forming the constitutionally-mandated salary panel

* Veteran senator says commission should be abolished.

By Marc Powers

Nevada Daily Mail

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A special state commission that was constitutionally required to meet this year and recommend salary adjustments for state elected officials and judges was never even appointed, and the reason why this mandate apparently was ignored is unclear.

The Missouri Citizen's Commission on Compensation was to have submitted its salary recommendations to the secretary of state and the revisor of statutes by Dec. 1.

But with no commission in place, the constitutional deadline was missed.

State Sen. Wayne Goode, D-Normandy, said the failure to organize a commission this year is a sign the panel should be abolished.

"I don't think we need it," Goode said. "It hasn't worked very well."

Missouri voters ratified a constitutional amendment in 1994 to establish the commission.

The intent was depoliticize salary decisions by greatly reducing the General Assembly's role in the process.

Gov. Bob Holden, Secretary of State Matt Blunt and the Supreme Court were each required to appoint members to the 22-member panel this year after the four-year terms of the previous commissioners had expired.

Representatives of the various officials involved in process could offer no solid explanation as to why the appointments weren't made but indicated the lack of a budget appropriation for the commission was partly the cause.

"Allegedly, there was no money in the Office of Administration's budget to fund expenses," said Thomas Simon, the Supreme Court clerk.

A similar situation arose earlier this year in relation to Missouri's presidential primary.

The legislature refused to include funding for the primary in the state budget but failed to repeal the law that nonetheless required it to be held.

As a result, OA was obligated to find $3.7 million elsewhere in the budget to pay for it.

Katherine Conner, the assistant budget director at OA, said the circumstances in that instance were somewhat different as OA was able to tap a discretionary appropriation for general election-related expenses.

However, no specific appropriation was made for the commission in 2002, the last year it convened, but Conner said funding still was provided through the office of the OA director. The legislature budgeted $25,000 for the panel for 2000, of which about $23,000 was spent, Conner said.

Under the constitution, formation of the commission isn't discretionary.

Terri Durdaller, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state, said the office is in the process of picking the nine members for the commission whom it chooses at random from among registered voters in each of Missouri's nine congressional districts.

The governor is to nominate 12 members.

Since the governor's choices are subject to Senate confirmation, it is likely Blunt, who will assume the post Jan. 10, would make those selections rather than Holden.

The Supreme Court picks one member, who must be a retired judge.

With this year's deadline already passed, the commission presumably won't convene until 2006, the next constitutional cycle for considering salaries.

In the past even some panel members have questioned its relevance.

Although its proposed salary scales automatically take effect unless rejected by the legislature, affected officials only get pay hikes if lawmakers appropriate the funds.

In 2000, the commission's recommendations became law but the legislature never backed them up with money. The 2002 salary scales were rejected.

Goode, who leaves the legislature in January after 42 years, has long advocated doing away with the commission.

As a compromise to straight-up abolition, Goode successfully steered through the legislature a proposed constitutional amendment that would have further reduced the panels already limited authority.

That measure, which received little public attention, was overwhelmingly rejected when it appeared on the statewide ballot in 2000.

Prior to the commissions creation, the legislature had the sole say over when and by how much salaries for elected officials and judges increased. Goode said the concept of an independent salary commission originated with members of Missouri's legal community who felt the legislature wasn't adequately increasing judicial pay.

The commission has had little impact in that regard, Goode said.

"The whole idea of trying to shift the responsibility for these salaries to somewhere other than the legislature isn't a good idea," Goode said.