California lawmakers are set to receive a 5.3% pay raise Monday, but a dozen say they won’t accept it in the wake of a tax hike approved last November and while many residents are still struggling to recover from the recent recession.
The raises were approved by the citizen panel that determines state officials’ compensation. The base salary for most legislators will go from $90,526 to $95,291 — still below the $116,208 that lawmakers received in 2007, before their pay was cut during California’s budget crises.