In general, I don’t think that our politicians need, or deserve, pay raises. Raises are supposed to be for people who show dedication, work hard and achieve success—all of which I believe our politicians lack. However, I do think that the members of the Colorado executive branch need a pay hike.

While there hasn’t been any formal legislation brought forward, a few lawmakers are considering an increase in pay for members of the executive branch. Understandably unpopular, I still think that this would only be a positive measure for Colorado.

The Colorado governor makes $90,000 per year in salary. This is lower than all of the salaries of governors in surrounding states. Furthermore, this is one of the lowest salaries for a governor in the U.S. Why should we have a governor, who would perform virtually the same tasks in other states, be paid less just because he is in Colorado? It just doesn’t make sense.

The same holds true for other members of the executive branch. The Attorney General makes $80,000 and the State Treasurer makes $68,500, both of which are also lower than those same positions in surrounding states. In fact, the Attorney General makes about $50,000 less than district attorneys in small districts in Colorado.

Some would say, though, that they just couldn’t approve a pay raise for the current governor or treasurer. The best part is that under Colorado law, lawmakers cannot vote for a pay raise for somebody already in office. The proposition to raise salaries would only extend to future members of the executive branch.

Also, since 1999, the salaries of the executive branch in Colorado have remained the same. Surely that’s plenty of time to wait for a pay raise.

The only downfall to not having an official bill is that there haven’t been exact numbers to say what the rise in pay would be. That could make a big difference. I would be more willing to support a small increase in pay as opposed to a larger pay hike.

I can’t imagine that the pay raise would be extremely large. On that faith, I fully support a pay hike for our members of the executive branch.

I completely understand the hesitation to move forward with this proposition. But this time, we need to look at the facts and see that Colorado is underpaying its governor and other executive branch members. Let’s come together on this one issue to remedy this problem.