LEGISLATORS TACKLE PAY PLAN, DAILY EXPENSES

When Missouri voters approved the formation of a citizens commission to recommend pay increases for legislators, judges and other state officials, they probably thought removing this responsibility from the General Assembly would eliminate politics from the process. But those same voters probably didn't expect the commission to recommend huge pay increases -- 21 percent for lawmakers and up to 23 percent for judges -- without a single bit of justification.

So legislators turned down the whole package earlier this year. Their only other choice was to let the commission's recommendations take effect.

Now budget negotiators in the House and Senate have recommended the same modest pay increases for elected officials as other state workers will get: approximately 2.9 percent. In addition, the negotiators settled on doubling the daily expense allowance for legislators to $70.

This compromise plan certainly sound more reasonable. It is likely to face legal challenges, if approved, because no one seems to know if the citizens commission can be circumvented by lawmakers.

The fact is, the responsibility for such pay decisions should never have been taken away from lawmakers -- elected and responsible to voters -- instead of handing over such chores to unelected commissioners who don't have to face taxpaying voters.