A Senate panel is killing a proposal asking voters to tie legislator pay to one-fifth of the median household income in South Dakota.
The panel voted unanimously to table House Joint Resolution 1001. A bill with similar language is working through the legislature.
Republican State Senator Ryan Maher says the legislature needs to make the decision whether to increase their pay, not the voters. He says that should be an in-house decision.
“Because then we don’t have to address this issue ever again,” Maher says. “One thing about it, the salary is either going to go up or go down, depending on what the household income is and we don’t have to have this fight ever again—instead of picking this arbitrary number that every 20 years we’ve got to address and have a fight over.”
Current legislator salary sits at $6,000 a year.
The median household income in South Dakota has hovered around $50,000 since 2006. If approved by legislators and the governor, lawmaker salary would increase to roughly $10,200 dollars.
That would mean an additional $440,000.