Zach Wendling
LINCOLN — A legislative committee has narrowly advanced a bill that would provide all Nebraska constitutional officers, except the governor, a roughly 57% salary raise effective in 2027.
Legislative Bill 345, introduced by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, includes no specific dollar amounts as introduced. However, the committee unanimously adopted an amendment to the bill, advanced in a 5-1 vote, offering the raises effective Jan. 7, 2027, if passed by the full Legislature and signed into law by the governor.
The proposed 57% raise was calculated by a committee staffer who compared inflationary increases compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor between Jan. 4, 2007, and earlier this month. That was the last time the offices got a salary bump.
“As we know, a 2025 dollar is not worth what a 2007 dollar was worth,” State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue, chair of the committee, said at the bill’s Feb. 5 hearing.
The changes would affect the following salaries:
- Attorney general, from $95,000 to $149,000.
- Secretary of state, from $85,000 to $133,000.
- Auditor of public accounts, from $85,000 to $133,000.
- State treasurer, from $85,000 to $133,000.
- Lieutenant governor, from $75,000 to $118,000.
- Five members of the Public Service Commission, from $75,000 to $118,000 each.
The governor would remain at $105,000. It would be the first time the governor was paid the least among this set of constitutional officers since at least 1987, according to a review by the Nebraska Examiner.
Sanders told the Examiner last month that if the bill increased the governor’s salary, Pillen had promised to veto it.
In a Feb. 7 statement to the Examiner, Laura Strimple, a spokesperson for Pillen, said “being a public servant requires sacrifice.”
“Governor Pillen is humbled to serve the people of Nebraska,” she said in an email. “He does not support a pay increase for himself or other elected officials.”
Salary changes must come at the start of an officeholder’s term, so January 2027, after the November 2026 elections. If LB 345 or a version of it doesn’t pass, a raise is prohibited until January 2031 at the earliest.
If passed at the amended amounts, LB 345 would require an additional $456,000 each fiscal year to cover the raised salaries.
Setting an ‘appropriate’ salary
Sanders, who leads the bill as chair of the Government Committee, said the constitutional officers oversee essential state functions full time. She said that if lawmakers want Nebraskans with families to be able to serve in the roles, they must consider “appropriate” salary levels. She has said it’s also about attracting candidates, noting current officials are paid less than their counterparts in all six surrounding states.
Former State Treasurer John Murante left his post in September 2023 to head the agency overseeing state retirement plans, going from a salary of $85,000 to $205,000. He left that role at the end of last year for a local lobbying firm.
“No one should get rich from a career in public service,” Sanders told her colleagues. “I’m not even advocating for salaries that are equivalent to similar responsibility levels in private industry. It is an honor to serve, and it is appropriate for elected officials to make some personal sacrifices as part of their service.”
She continued: “At some point, however, we do have an obligation to adjust the salary levels to make sure the best candidates can afford to serve.”
The bill’s path forward
State Sens. Bob Andersen of Sarpy County, Dunixi Guereca of Omaha, Dan Lonowski of Hastings and Dan McKeon of Amherst joined Sanders in advancing the bill. State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha was the lone “no” vote.
State Sens. John Cavanaugh of Omaha and Dave Wordekemper of Fremont took no position and were “present, not voting.”
Auditor of Public Accounts Mike Foley, now in his 11th year in the role, was the only person to speak on the bill in February, where he was described as an “invited guest.” He indicated he’d support whatever the committee decided.
His lengthy tenure in state government began in 2001, stretching six years as a Lincoln state senator, eight years as auditor and eight years as lieutenant governor to former Gov. Pete Ricketts. He returned to the auditor spot in 2023, where Foley, a longtime Republican, is often praised by senators regardless of party for his office’s dogged work.
For example, State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, a pragmatic Democrat now in her 11th year as a state senator in the officially nonpartisan Legislature, has filed a motion to kill the bill and an amendment to limit the salary increase to Foley alone.
LB 345 likely has no viable path as a standalone bill this year, but committee staff said it could be attached to a bill from Speaker John Arch of La Vista, LB 346, which was introduced at Gov. Jim Pillen’s request to eliminate various boards and commissions.
Previous salary bills, at least to 1973, have all passed as stand-alone proposals and have most recently faced opposition from the governor.
Governor vetoes are common
Pillen would not be alone if he vetoed the bill, though lawmakers have a history of overriding vetoes on the raises, such as in 1973 (former Gov. James Exon) and each of the last three approved bills, in 1990 (former Gov. Kay Orr), 2000 (former Gov. Mike Johanns) and 2006 (former Gov. Dave Heineman). Each veto came in the respective governor’s first term.
Bills in 1978 (Exon) and 1986 (former Gov. Bob Kerrey) were not vetoed. Exon was term-limited and Kerrey didn’t run for reelection.
Each governor that used their veto pen cited budget constraints or, in the case of Heineman, said the raises did not “represent a spending priority.”
Orr said in 1990 that she was vetoing “worthwhile programs” due to budget constraints and that officials “must share in these efforts to keep state spending to a minimum.” Johanns said in 2000 that he appreciated lawmakers’ willingness to examine the constitutional officer salaries compared to other states.
“At a time, however, when I have vetoed many meritorious proposals due to our current budget constraints, I cannot in good conscience agree to raise my salary, along with those of other constitutional officers,” Johanns wrote in his April 11, 2000, veto letter.
The very next day, lawmakers in a 45-1 vote — the largest margin of the override motions — rebuffed Johanns. He then got the 31% pay bump after he won reelection in 2002.
Exon in 1973 said he appreciated lawmakers not raising the governor’s salary. However, he cautioned that “substantial increases to only a few constitutional officers is not the only point” and that assistants traditionally also see large increases, “and a chain reaction sets in.”
Asked whether Pillen would veto the bill if passed, Strimple said “we will not speculate on hypotheticals in the legislative process.”
Pillen has eyed a second term but has not yet announced reelection for 2026. He ran in 2022 alongside Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly, who presides over the Legislature.
‘Highly hypocritical’
This time around, lawmakers face a projected $457 million budget shortfall over the next two fiscal years, prior to any legislative action. The next state budget must pass by mid-May.
Conrad, a former member of the Appropriations Committee during all eight of Foley’s first eight years as auditor, echoed budget concerns. She’s also been highly critical of other officers’ job performance, namely Secretary of State Bob Evnen, Attorney General Mike Hilgers and Pillen.
“My bottom line is I don’t think we should raise salaries for highly paid politicians amid a budget crisis, and it’s highly hypocritical to seek such as many of these same leaders seek to undermine the will of the voters and undercut working families’ access to minimum wage and sick leave,” Conrad said in a Thursday email.
Lawmakers just last week also moved away from a conversation about changing their own compensation levels, which haven’t been raised since 1988, and parked a proposal for a nonpartisan, independent compensation review commission at the end of 2025 priorities, including after the state budget.
Any changes to lawmaker compensation would require a constitutional amendment, and state senator salaries have been more rigid because they are locked in the Nebraska Constitution, unlike salaries for constitutional officers or judges, the latter of whom almost always get salaries adjusted each July 1.
Foley told the Government Committee last month that it is appropriate to review and perhaps update compensation from time to time, but he didn’t have “any particular number in mind.”
“That’s your call, not mine,” he testified. “Whatever compensation figures you determine to be correct, that’s the right number. You’ll hear no quibbling from me.”
‘Look past the individuals’
Foley confirmed that stance again in a Thursday email, telling the Examiner: “Whatever number the committee decides is fine with me.”
A spokesperson for Attorney General Mike Hilgers said he hadn’t weighed in on the proposal “and believes that he should not advocate for any changes to his own salary. He trusts that the body will make an appropriate decision that is right for the State of Nebraska.”
A spokesperson for the Public Service Commission said the commission hadn’t taken a position and would not speak on pending legislation. A spokesperson for Treasurer Tom Briese, a former state senator appointed to the role in November 2023, said the office had no comment.
A spokesperson for Evnen said by email after reviewing the amended bill: “The secretary indicated that no one had discussed the figures … with him. The proposal was not made at his behest, and this is a legislative determination.” Of current constitutional officers, Evnen was the first to announce a reelection bid for 2026.
Foley was in the Legislature in 2006 when former State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha led the last bill to raise the salaries, which also included the governor.
“My philosophy is that we should look past the individuals who happen to be occupying the office and annex to that office a salary commensurate with the duties entailed and the dignity that the office should be cloaked with,” Chambers said in a March 14, 2006, floor speech regarding his bill.
Foley was in the middle of his campaign for auditor and was “present, not voting” when Chambers’ bill came for a final vote that year.
“I think it’s the right thing to do, every 20 years or so, to revise the salaries for the constitutional officers of the State of Nebraska,” Foley said last month. “That’s why we’re here: to simply do the right thing.”