The Arizona legislator on Monday approved two different ways to raise his salary, adding plans to significantly increase daily expenses for legislators living in Maricopa County, and became an existing proposal to retroactively adjust inflation to annual pay when voters approve.

At a margin of 14-3, House Approvals Committee members agreed to ask voters to approve inflation adjustments for their current $24,000 legislative salary. However, Sen. John Kavanagh of R-Fountain Hills expressed it from 1998 as indexing was calculated.

The measure, which has already been approved by the Senate, is now heading home.

However, the panel later approved an entirely new proposal from R-Peoria Rep. David Livingston. The proposal appeared on Monday as an amendment to an unrelated bill during hearings at the Approximate Appropriations Committee, which he chairs. Livingston hopes that lawmakers per day salary living in Maricopa County will move from the current $35 to 80% of the rates paid to people in 14 other counties in the first 120 days of the legislative meeting.

This amounts to around $200 a day. This is a five-fold increase.

That plan proved less attractive to the commissioner who approved it, especially unlike Cabana’s proposal, with voters not getting the last word, and so it proved less attractive to those who approved it with a 10-7 margin that it would be unconstitutional to use allowances as a back door to raise legal salaries.

Lawmakers on both parties have been aware of the low salary that has not changed for decades. Until 2021, these same issues were applied to daily expenses money.

However, in 2021, the legislature passed a bill that was raised per DIEM rate for people living outside of Maricopa County, with legislature paying seven days a week during the session. It was a huge increase at $60 a day for the first 120 days, from what they had previously earned in cost money, followed by a massive cut.

The boost provided cost checks for non-Maricopa County councillors ranging from $7,200 to $32,280 for the first 120 days. If Congress continues the session for another 60 days, the salary will be over $40,000. And it rises every year to adjust for inflation.

However, lawmakers living in Maricopa County did not receive such a raise.

“If there is a way that this organization and members of the Senate are currently paid, then discrimination is being made if there are members who are currently living outside of Maricopa who can get three times the total wage package. “This needs to be fixed.”

Maricopa County lawmakers were removed from the 2021 boost after former government government Doug Ducey rejected the 2019 bill and rejected a massive Deem Boost for all lawmakers. He said lawmakers who live in Metro Phoenix don’t have to rent or drive apartments during sessions and don’t need to get a massive cost hike. Many lawmakers who don’t live in the Phoenix area are trying not to have to stay in hotels to buy a house or rent an apartment.

Therefore, the measure passed in 2021 excluded people like Livingston who live in Maricopa County. Ducey made the increase legal without his signature.

If the new proposal passes through the House and Senate and signs the law, Maricopa County Councillors’ fee payments will increase from the current $4,200 in the first 120 days to $25,800. As the law provides, if they work half the month for half of that month, their total cost is over $32,000.

And that’s $24,000 in addition to a salary of $24,000, or if voters approve a pay hike in 2026, it’s $48,000.

Livingston thwarted the Senate-passed bill, which offered corrections officers and state police officers to raise wages, replacing the language with a new proposal for legislative fees. Sen. David Gowan of R-Sierra Vista, sponsoring the measure, agreed to have Livingston use his bill. However, he also said that he wanted a change to the 120-day cap for all costs, as Congress rarely completed the session at that time.

“There’s a part where we want to go further, knowing that 120 days are miserable for foreigners. “So I think we need to fix that.”

Livingston pledged to consider that. He said he was open to talking to Democrats about tweaking the new rates for Maricopa County lawmakers and when the increase should be enacted. He also said he has considered increasing payments for elected officials across the state, such as the governor, attorney general and accounting.

“I’m ashamed of how low we are to work for them all year round. They deserve to get more payments no matter what aspect of the aisle they happen to come from,” he said.

The highest-paid statewide office holder, Gov. Katie Hobbs, earns $90,000 a year. Other officers, such as the Secretary of State, Attorney General and Accounting, are far below that. Unlike many states, Arizona does not have a governor’s residence or residence.

Livingston’s proposal passed the Approximate Budget Committee 10-7 votes after one member withdrew from power and some Republicans and Democrats rejected support for the proposal.

“We don’t agree with what we need… parity with members outside the county, but there are constitutional concerns about moving in this way,” said Rep. Mariana Sandoval of D-Goodyear. She also said non-Maricopa County Assemblyman who returns home every night requires a deeper look on whether he doesn’t have to stay in Phoenix – but it costs too much.

However, D-Tucson Rep. Kevin Volk said he fully understands the need for an increase. He said in addition to requiring a place to travel and stay, all lawmakers spend an incredible amount of time working, both at the Capitol and at home.

“I’m in favor of recognizing all costs, not just direct costs like rental and household-related costs, but also time costs,” Volk said.

Cabana, which encourages hiking in salary plans linked to inflation since 1998, did not call it a wage raise.

“We’re not asking voters to really increase their pay with real dollars,” he told the committee on Monday. “We are asking people to maintain their pay in 1998 at the same actual amount they thought were worth it.”

If all 90 Senate and House members receive wage increases to $48,000, Arizona lawmakers’ salaries amount to just over $4.3 million per DIEM.