By Brian Bakst

MPR.org.90.1 FM

Minnesotans this fall will be asked to vote on whether to remove state lawmakers’ authority to set their own salaries and transfer the power instead to an independent citizen board.

If passed, it would be a dramatic change in how lawmaker pay is set. So how come no one’s talking about it? So far, no organized campaign has emerged on either side.

At least one critic believes the proposal’s wording — “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to remove state lawmakers’ power to set their own salaries, and instead establish an independent, citizens-only council to prescribe salaries of lawmakers?” — could lead voters to unintentionally deliver a pay raise to lawmakers.

Lawmakers drafted the language a few years ago after the latest recommendations to boost their pay went nowhere. Legislator pay has been such a sticky subject that there hasn’t been a change to the base salary of $31,140 since 1999.

“Legislators do not want to be voting on our pay. It feels wrong,” said state Sen. Kent Eken, DFL-Twin Valley, one of the amendment’s chief supporters. “If you look at the constitutional amendment, it makes no comments whatsoever on what the pay should be. It’s all about who should set it. And we are not the objective ones, so we should not be the ones setting it.”

Eken acknowledges that taking the decision-making out of lawmakers’ hands could make it easier for them to get a raise.

“Could it lead to a pay increase?” he asked. “It’s possible.”

If the amendment passes, a 16-member salary council would be formed to decide legislator pay every two years. The governor and Minnesota Supreme Court chief justice would pick the members. Appointees would be split evenly between the two major parties. Legislators past and present and their spouses would be excluded, as would lobbyists, judges and state employees.

Other states have similar setups. A notable example is California, which established its Citizen Compensation Commission following a 1990 referendum. In its first three years, the panel left lawmaker pay unchanged.

More often than not since, there have been compensation increases.