It may sound like a crazy idea, but I’m questioning whether we should be paying our state legislators down in Juneau. I just discovered that most states pay less than we do, and New Mexico doesn’t pay its legislators at all. It makes me wonder, given the poor job our legislature does, should we pay them?
Defenders of our current system will argue that since 60 of our fellow Alaskans (20 state Senators and 40 House members) dedicate a significant portion of their time to representing us, they deserve to be well compensated. This might seem like a good argument, but most states don’t agree.
If you look at the salary range, you can see that Alaska pays the fifth-highest amount of any state in the union at $84,000 for the annual 120-day legislative session in Juneau. The average salary for legislators around the country is less than half of that at $41,193/yr.
Earning 84 grand for three months’ work is a pretty good deal that a majority of Alaskans would be happy to accept. Most of us wouldn’t have an issue paying this much money if our legislators were delivering excellence to the state, but are they? Look at it this way, if you went to an expensive restaurant, and had poor service and were given burned food, would you be happy to pay for your meal? Probably not, and we should use the same logic for our state government.
The members of the Alaska House and Senate are public servants who work for us. As their employer, we get to decide what they will be paid. Like any employee, they should be compensated according to the value they deliver to us.
Looking at their recent performance, they haven’t been doing a particularly good job. They consistently mismanage our state’s financial resources. It has been years since they have been able to deliver a balanced budget without raiding one of the rainy-day accounts, and have more recently resorted to stealing a portion of your Permanent Fund check just to keep the doors open on schools. That isn’t delivering excellence in governing; it is demonstrating incompetence, yet we pay our public servants one of the highest salaries in the country to do so. As citizens in an owner state, we are being foolish and irresponsible if we continue to allow this to go on.
I propose a simple solution. Prorate the salaries in the legislature to the statutory PFD payment. When citizens get a full statutory PFD payment, the legislators will receive 100% of their salary. When the PFD is reduced to pay for our inefficient state government, the salaries of every legislator will be reduced by the same percentage. If they take all of our annual PFD checks, then the legislators will get to chip in with 100% of their salary. Fair is fair.
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Critics of this idea will say that it is impossible because a change like this would require legislation to pass the House and Senate, and it is unlikely that the legislature will willingly do so. That is probably true, but there is a way to get this done, or at least get the members of the legislature to go on record opposing it. We could ask our next governor to introduce legislation tying the salary of the legislators to the statutory PFD. This is possible because Alaska is unique in that our governor is able to introduce bills to the legislature through the rules committee in either the House or Senate.
Since we are in the midst of a gubernatorial campaign, I would love to see one of the candidates adopt this issue and promise if elected, to introduce legislation that would codify this idea into law. If he or she submits this idea through the rules committee in both the House and Senate, it would force the legislature to either move this bill out of committee or demonstrate that they hate the citizens who elected them. Even better, I’d love to see the members of the full House and Senate be forced to vote on this idea. Most of them would probably vote against it. In doing so, however, it would show us who the snakes are down in Juneau, as if we needed any help figuring that out.
The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.
18 Comments
Amen no more pay!!! We people have been ripped off ! No more! Give us our full PFD and no PFD forever more to present and past legislators gov. Lt gov. Period , full stop! Accountability bomb just went off!
My concern with this idea is that it restricts who can hold a seat to those who are independently wealthy or retired.
I agree. Most ordinary folks, who would and could more accurately and effectively represent the citizenry, do not have the means to take off work for three months at a time. Leaving their families to stay in Juneau is also problematic, and presents another obstacle to statesmen-without-means and those who prioritize their family obligations over those to the State, from seeking to represent their fellow Alaskans in public office.
It just makes them have to be even more conservative with their money from their job to pay their mortgage expenses three-four months in advance
People take vacations right. Women take maternity leave right. People arrange time away from their work for things all the time. A legislator can make it work that bills are paid in advance for their spouse peace of mind. Jean, don’t listen to the arguements of current Republican leaders who dont want to lose their own salaries. Because I tell you we expect an Alaskan to live on 17.00 an and they do live on that. A legislator with a job that pays him fall greater than 17.00 an hour, can take three months off and have three-four months bills paid in advance.
I’ve been working for over 40 years and have NEVER had a job where I could take 3 months off every year. Vacations are 2-3 weeks and planned around project deadlines. Maternity leave is 6 weeks and not every year. Holding our representatives accountable is necessary but this is a bad idea.
Sounds good, Greg. The first thing this legislature should do is to quit breaking the law. Put out the money required to move the legislature and governor to the mainland, Willow or Wasilla, for example. The thieves and Neo-marxists do not want to move where we would have access to them on the highway. They continue to break the law since there have been two different elections where the People in Alaska voted successfully to move the capital., This lawless body of legislators have not produced the money for the move. Many Alaskan families would take part in the state government if the capital was located on the mainland. No legislative work should be done until the move is accomplished. According to the most recent calculations of the statutory formula,, each family member including newborns should have received $3,892 (2025-2026) last October. Could a family of five, for example, benefit and use the money for personal needs like furnace fuel, medical situations, food, college tuition, pay bills, etc?. The robbers of the PFD overrode Governor Dunleavy and stole our money to pass it on to the NEA for teacher and counselor training into the WOKE ideology of sexual Marxism. About half or more of the legislators are neo-marxists “activists” trained through the secular education system from K through college in an ideology which is against our Western Christian Civilization, against the family and solid traditional values that work , The family is the building block of any nation. The PFD was set up by Governor Hammond so that the citizens of Alaska could share in the profits of our minerals. Mr. Sarber has suggested a method of accountability for these greedy, lawless legislators. They mistakenly think we, the citizens, work for them, when in reality, they work for us. .Pray for honest candidates to run against the thieves and robbers currently in office. Note: there were many who helped the governor but not enough. They are to be commended for their integrity in the face of pressure from colleagues. We will likely see an improvement in performance and increased respect for all of us, including our Governor and MAGA President if we gain equal access to the governing bodies.
We could do a ballot initative; right?
I have always questioned why they get paid at all. It’s not like any of them do anything worthwhile. Maybe free lunch, but other than that?
Tamra. Really, you’re smarter than lobbing throw-away nonsense.
Legislators (Leaders) are supposed to Serve not be Served up by the ones working day and night so the leader can sleep a better night kingly sleep than the workers.
When leaders make it all about How much money they and staff deserve (because some staff and capital employees are taking 100,000-200,000). they’re no longer serving they no longer have a servants spirit.
For a state where it’s residents struggling with their own government dependency, the legislature set the example what they say is okay. Our legislators are so government dependent decry wouldn’t just come from Democrats but also Republicans crying over not getting their salary. (except maybe not Yundt since earlier this year he told Alaska Story he donates all his salary)
Frank Richards, president of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp, with a 2023 compensation of $479,588.
Grand idea, Greg, prorating legislative salaries to statutory PFD payment.
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Why not add something prohibiting legislative perdiem payments for sessions, including special sessions, which extend beyond the statutory limit?
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Other writers suggest a salary should compensate impecunious legislators for time away from gainful employment.
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Maybe so, but then we have: akleg.gov/docs/pdf/2022-Salary-and-Business-Expense-Report.pdf. Yes, it matters to us who are about to get stiffed with income and sales taxes to pay for it! Damned people going all Noah’s Ark, moving everything except the kitchen sink at -our expense- to the Holy Party City of Juneau for however long they –not us– want.
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To those who bitch because they can’t afford going all Noah’s Ark, etc., does “shut your piehole” seem excessively rude?
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So hell freezes over, Greg’s in charge, what do we do, Boss?
Nothing other then expenses. It has its own problems as others have indicated, but it would clear the decks nicely. Our current political class is not fit for purpose and needs to go. We can continue to pray that the silent majority wakes up and votes.
When you also think of the expense of one legislature body, think also that the one legislative person has a a budget not mentioned in any of this. The budget includes staff and payment of staff and transportation of staff as well as benefits unspoken of for staff and the legislative elected. The elected has per diem and a suite apartment in a ten million dollar building. The budget includes the shipping and transportation of all necessary equipment to and from Juneau from the point of the district of domicile. Some bring their whole family and staff. Benefits? That is another part not spoken of and then the salary. With all of this, the salary is approximately $1000. a day. The dollars in their pockets exceeds what we think is just salary. So taking a look at the work and using a competency issue to describe the work is important. Usually staff writes the bills coming from the office (legal assistance( or capable secretary) , not the elected legislative person. So, looking at what it is administratively, one can see each elected legislative body working throughout the day as only an Administrative Officer. They can’t make the final decision on any bill. They just present it and tell about it. Debate time is simply “show and tell” and voting on understandings. The final decision is up to the Governor and the legal aspect of the bill is reviewed by attorneys in the Law Department. There is a lot of pretend on their part to look important but working as an Administrative Officer is simply a semi-professional job. That is what the Legislature is and does. I can’t see an 84K an three month job worth all of that to write bills and talk about the bill to get to vote and really make no decision each day that will ultimately cost over $600,000. per elected person for a three month period to include all other expenses. There needs to be a budget to control that unleashed theft of state money. The public is totally in the dark about the truth of expenses and salary of one elected legislative person. The work is all office setting. The legislative persons learn to live in a bubbled thinking about their self-importance and at the end of the day and with all the budget per elected person, the pretend image is cast outward to the public with their imaginations at a very high level of pretend,
We are paying them to be prostitutes. They are SCREWING every one of us!!!
First off.. Great Idea! ! 80%-90% of our greedy,corrupt judicial system needs to be FIRED!
I like your plan but agree with M. Kelly in that it should be a ballot initiative and we the voters decide their pay.
Yes, but remember what Crime Boss Dunleavy did? He asked the board who is responsible for their pay to make a recommendation and they did going through the qualificatons of the legislative body and the governor got mad. Since he wanted more money, it would to make the look out of step with his plans for his pocket, so he fired that board and rehired members that would lie for him Basically that was the decision on all boards. So, the next governor has a job to do and the people can make sure they have a vote on the subject by requesting that be done with a vote of the people in a bill to put to Alaska and the voting public.