Independent pay commission sets member salary at $50,802 starting 2027 and raises interim per diem; legal limits constrain immediate changes

Directors DeCicco and Castle presented the independent elected official pay commission report produced under House Bill 24-1059. The commission’s methodology used a third-party market analysis to benchmark peer states and adjusted for local labor costs. As written in statute, the commission’s recommendations set the member base salary at $50,802 effective Jan. 1, 2027, and require automatic inflation indexing in subsequent years.

The report also recommended raising interim member per diem from $99 to $193 (an inflation-adjusted increase with a 25% haircut from the full index) and increasing certain leadership per diems (for example, per-diem pay for filling in for the governor would rise to $100 from $20). For most statewide elected-official salaries, the commission targeted roughly the 25th percentile of the market distribution, with the Attorney General’s benchmark tied to market salaries for experienced associate attorneys (about $170,000).

Fiscal estimates: the full-year fiscal impact is concentrated in FY2028; staff estimated a roughly $400,000 fiscal impact in the full year (about a 1.5% increase over current appropriations), while FY2027 shows a modest half-year impact. Legal staff highlighted constitutional limits on changing salaries during an official’s term (Article V, Section 6) and noted per diem changes are not subject to the same restriction; travel-reimbursement changes would need to be applied consistently across state actors if implemented.

The committee heard the briefing and legal analysis and did not take immediate action at the meeting.