While inflation has left salaries stagnant across the country, Ohio taxpayers could be on the hook for a salary increase for state lawmakers. The move would be a parting gift from lawmakers as this year’s session grinds to a halt, further raising their salaries above the average for Ohio residents.
According to Cleveland.com, state lawmakers could consider increasing the salaries of state employees, including judges, county officials and township trustees.
According to the Toledo Blade, the proposal calls for public servants to receive an increase of 3.25% annually for four years. Then, they would receive six more cost-of-living adjustments of either 3% or the inflation rate, whichever amount is less.
Lawmakers’ salaries, set to increase from $71,099 in 2024 to more than $76,000 by 2028, would go to a base salary of $86,421 in 2028, according to the Cleveland.com report. That would make Ohio lawmakers some of the best-paid in the country, behind California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania, Cleveland.com, citing data from the National Conference of State Legislatures, reported.
A USA TODAY Blueprint review of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found the average salary in Ohio in 2023 was $60,320. The Buckeye State ranked behind Pennsylvania ($66,404) and Michigan ($63,440) but ahead of Kentucky ($57,200), Indiana ($57,304) and West Virginia ($55,900).
According to reports, in 2018, lawmakers overrode a veto by then-Gov. John Kasich to increase their salaries. At the time, Kasich urged lawmakers to send the bill to his successor, then-incoming and current Gov. Mike DeWine.
“We’ve had four or five years of rampant inflation,” WBNS-TV quoted state Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, as saying. “As anyone knows, prices are up between 20 and 30% over where they were pre-pandemic. There’s only one group that can vote the raise for the legislature and that’s the legislature,” Seitz added, according to the report. “So, it can’t be done any other way.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle voiced milquetoast reactions to the possible salary increase.
House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, told The Toledo Blade that House Democrats are “all over the place” on positions related to a possible pay raise. Similarly, Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, indicated to Statehouse News Bureau that he was noncommittal, noting that local government officials would also see a pay bump.
“I think there’s a lot of discussion among - as being a former county official who went eight years without a pay raise - our county officials, especially in our smaller counties, do a lot of that work themselves, and actually could work in the private sector for a lot more than what they make in the public sector,” Stephens said, according to the outlet. “I think it’s a fair debate and a fair discussion to have. So we’ll see how it goes.”
The idea of lawmakers voting themselves an increase hasn’t necessarily received a warm reception from the public.
“If only I could create my own percentage of pay raise due to inflation or do something about property taxes and school funding,” a Hilliard resident said in a letter to the editor of The Columbus Dispatch.
“Instead of figuring out how to provide relief to constituents on fixed incomes much smaller than the $71,000 to $196,633 annual salaries of elected officials who would receive the 5% raises, [Seitz] says they might as well do it before they go home for Christmas,” the letter writer added. “Well, at least elected officials will have a Merry Christmas.”
According to the Blade’s report, a supermajority of 60 members of the 99-member House and 20 members of the 33-member Senate would need to approve the raise, which would take effect with the start of the 136th General Assembly in January.
“If you do it anytime after the end of this year, it will not take effect, because there’s a constitutional provision against in-term increases in pay,” the Blade quoted Seitz as saying. “That’s the urgency to do it now if you’re going to do it.”
