Residents of Montgomery County who might be contemplating running for elected office this year face two contrasting choices. They could seek to be a member of the Montgomery County Council and focus on local issues such as land use, liquor licensing and property taxes. Or they might run to be a delegate or state senator with a broader, statewide perspective including final say on a $43.6 billion annual budget. Both positions are regarded as part-time but also require putting in some seriously long hours — not just in official duties but going out into the community and hearing from constituents. The jobs are similar in many ways but by at least one measure they are strikingly different.
While a Montgomery County Council member is paid $142,056 annually, members of the Maryland House of Delegates and Senate earn $50,330 which is less than half that county’s median household income of $110,012 in 2020.
That’s quite a gap but it’s hardly exceptional. Members of the Baltimore City Council also are paid substantially more than state lawmakers. So are their counterparts in Baltimore, Howard and Prince George’s counties. Carroll and Harford counties pay their elected boards less (and the rural counties, substantially less) but the size of their county governments is much smaller, too, as is their cost of living.
The relatively modest salaries for state lawmakers are no accident, of course. They are very much part of a tradition of encouraging citizen legislators in Maryland. The idea is that average people could set aside their regular jobs for 90 days and gather each year at the State House to do the people’s business. At the conclusion, they would return to their farms or row homes and their “real” work. It was a check against professional politicians. Looking at states where the legislature meets year-round (not to mention the chronically dysfunctional U.S. Congress), there is merit to that philosophy.
But what happens when the gap between the amount of work to be done and the ability to support one’s family grows too large? That’s the question raised by the latest report from the General Assembly Compensation Commission, the nine-member board charged with performing a quadrennial analysis of lawmaker compensation and recommending what, if any, increase should be applied. In their Jan. 20 report, the commission recommended a 4% increase next year and the year after and then two 2% raises. Unless the General Assembly acts to reject or reduce that action, lawmakers elected in 2022 will earn $56,636 annually by 2026.
A lot of Marylanders won’t be crying over the financial plight of those elected to office — and for good reason. The vast majority will be just fine. They are business owners, lawyers (the single most common profession) or perhaps just affluent people with passive income. The state job even comes with benefits. The more subtle question involves who can reasonably afford to hold elected office. At some point, modest salaries work against the notion of citizen legislators, particularly as their responsibilities in Annapolis have grown in recent years as the matters before them become more complex and year-round meetings, hearings and other demands become the norm, not the exception. A recent survey of lawmakers found 28% reporting they worked on General Assembly matters at least 40 hours per week before and after the legislative session and 65% at least 20 hours. During the session, it’s 96% working 40 hours a week or more.
The irony, of course, is that lawmakers seeking reelection won’t speak out, either because they benefit from the current exclusionary system or because voters will see a call for a bigger pay hike as a money grab. That’s why legislative wages are already in the hands of a commission with the majority of its members appointed by the governor. The regular folks who can’t afford to run for the state legislature — the truck drivers, the day care providers, the servers, carpenters and others — have no real voice in this. Their ranks are already underrepresented in Annapolis and will continue to be so.
The cynical among us may have little sympathy for politicians and see the first dime spent on a lawmaker’s salary as 10 cents too much. But it’s always curious how political conservatives want government to operate more like a business and then wail when there’s any talk of paying decision-makers half as generously as any successful private company would. And those who rightly fear public corruption — and Maryland has that history — should recall how higher pay could have helped insulate lawmakers from the temptation of a little action (like a half-baked children’s book) on the side.
Baltimore Sun editorial writers offer opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. They operate separately from the newsroom
