AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - A Maine commission has recommended increasing the compensation for the governor, lawmakers and judges.
In a report approved Monday, the State Compensation Commission said the governor’s salary was “embarrassingly low, suggesting a disrespect for the position and making Maine an outlier from the rest of the country.”
The governor’s salary has been $70,000 since 1987, and the proposed increase would be to $130,000, The Portland Press Herald reported. That would place Maine 35th nationally in gubernatorial compensation and on par with New Hampshire, which pays $135,000.
The governor’s expense account would also increase from $30,000 to $40,000 per year.
“Maine is very fortunate to have very talented people who serve in all of these positions,” chairwoman of the commission, Vendean Vafiades, said.
Maine Supreme Court justices are paid less than their peers in every state, according to data compiled by the National Center for State Courts.
The recommendation would increase salaries for District and Superior Court judges from $133,286 to $150,000; Supreme Judicial Court justices from $142,209 to $169,000; and the Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court from $164,424 to $184,000.
The proposal would increase the total stipend paid during the two-year session for legislators from $25,444 to $32,000.
Vafiades said the the state’s median and per capita income data from the U.S. Census Bureau helped shape the proposed raises. Maine’s median household income is 35th nationally, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The recommendations will be sent to Gov. Janet Mills and the Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee for review.
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