Brief⁽¹⁾

The bill would make several amendments to the way legislators are paid. The changes are as follows:

Annual Salary. Members would receive an annual salary of $12,000, payable over 26 pay periods. This salary will be commenced in FY 2000.

Under current law, members are paid $72.06 per day during regular and special legislative sessions and for authorized meetings during the interim. Thus, the amount of salary a member receives is dependent upon the number of days of meetings attended.

Constituent Allowance. Members would receive a constituent allowance of $9,000, payable over 20 pay periods during the interim (same pay periods as current law). This allowance will be implemented in FY 2000.

The existing interim allowance totals $5,400 paid over 20 pay periods, beginning with the biweekly payroll period that commences in April.

Interim Meetings. Members would receive daily pay of $83.40 for attendance at any authorized meetings during the interim. This daily rate would apply to any meetings held after July 1, 1999.

Currently, the daily rate for authorized meetings is $72.06.

COLA. Members' daily pay would be indexed to the average of any classified state employee pay increases, including step movement and cost-of-living adjustments (COLA).

Currently, the daily pay rate is indexed to COLA only.

Choice. Members would have the option of refusing to accept the new annual salary or constituent allowance and could continue their current rate of pay. This option expires December 31, 2000.

Subsistence. Subsistence would remain at $80 per day, as in current law. Subsistence is paid for each day the Legislature is in session and each authorized meeting day during the interim. Subsistence is essentially to cover living expenses while members are away from home doing legislative business.

Retirement. Effective January 8, 2001, members will have the option of enrolling in KPERS (with a state contribution set in statute, currently at a range of 3.99 to 4.19 percent) or enrolling in the special deferred compensation plan, with the state contributing 8 percent.

State retirement contributions and benefits under either plan would be based on the combined annual salary and constituent allowance only (a total of $21,000).

Currently, members' retirement contributions and benefits are determined on an "annualized" base, which includes the salary and subsistence allowance plus the interim allowance. For most legislators, that "annualized" base is approximately $62,000.

Members of the Legislature would have the option of declining participation in either state retirement plan. Prior to the effective date of the new retirement options, members' KPERS contributions would be unchanged.

Currently, legislators have only one option for a state supported retirement program, that is KPERS. The deferred compensation plan with an 8 percent state contribution would be the same plan currently offered as an option to cabinet members, partisan legislative staff, and legislative secretaries (who work only during the session or sporadically during the interim).

Effective Date. The bill would take effect on July 1, 1999.

Background

The substitute bill contains the provisions of Sub. S.B. 55 as recommended by the Committee. The latter bill was on General Orders in the Senate when the Committee took action on the House bill.

The Committee-passed version of S.B. 55 is a substitute for the bill recommended by the Legislative Compensation Commission. In that bill, the annual legislative salary would have been $18,000, replacing both the daily rate for the legislative session and interim meetings and the interim allowance of $5,400. The Commission bill would only have eliminated "annualization" of legislative salaries for new members elected in 2000 and subsequent elections. The Commission recommendation also included mileage reimbursement for members representing multi-county districts for attendance at meetings related to the member's legislative duties and held outside the member's home county in the district.

The Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs combined aspects of the Commission bill and S.B. 174 in Sub. S.B. 55.

The Division of the Budget's fiscal note on the introduced version of the bill would not be relevant to either substitute bill.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html