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Long-awaited pay raises may be on the way for state legislators, after Gov. Palin quietly signed the bill last week that would make them possible.

Public official salaries are a touchy issue among legislators, and many have expressed the view that they should be paid more.

At the same time, many fear the voters won't appreciate legislators raising their own salaries and are unwilling to be seen as raising their own pay.

State Rep. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak, called the issue a "tar baby" that he didn't want to have anything to do with. He later became one of only five House voters against the bill that passed overwhelmingly in both houses of the Legislature.

The pay raise bill started with freshman Rep. Mike Doogan, D-Anchorage, who sponsored a bill to create a salary commission to set pay rates for legislators and other top state officials, including governor, lieutenant governor and top department heads. Its recommendations would take effect automatically, unless the Legislature specifically and quickly rejects them.

"It's been 22 or 23 years since this Legislature has raised its salary," said Rep. Max Gruenberg, D-Anchorage, and one of the longest-serving members of the body.

Doogan said it was his first and only bill to become law in his first session. The bill had looked dead at one point, but the salary commission provisions were suddenly amended into another bill providing pay increases for nonunion state employees.

House Bill 417 will provide increases for 2,500 to 3,000 state employees who are not represented by collective agreements. That bill was considered a "must pass" bill and adding the pay raise provisions was a convenient way to resurrect the bills.

Typical legislators average $60,000 to $70,000 a year, according to Empire calculations. Juneau legislators get lower per diem amounts than others legislators. That includes a combination of official salary of about $24,000 each, and short-term per diem and long-term per diem, and an expense account that can be taken as income.

"The next thing to do is for the governor to appoint five members of the salary commission," Doogan said.

Under the new law, the speaker of the House and president of the Senate would each give the governor a list of at least three names from which two of the seats would be filled, while the governor would select the other three herself.

The commission members could not be current state employees or state or municipal elective office holders or within the past four years held one of the offices for which they are recommending a salary.

The commission also would set the salary for the governor and lieutenant governor, currently set in state law at $125,000 and $100,000 annually.

The Legislature left itself, through its Legislative Council committee, in charge of setting per diem and moving expense reimbursement rules.

• Contact reporter Pat Forgeyat 523-2250 or e-mail patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.