Members of the Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee are considering a proposal to more than double the governor’s salary.
Maine pays its governor the lowest salary in the country, just $70,000 a year. The national average is nearly twice that.
Rep. Brad Farrin, a Republican from Norridgewock, is sponsoring a bill to raise Maine’s salary to $150,000 a year.
“The chief executive is responsible for executing a $6.7 billion biennial budget. Members of his own cabinet that report to him make in excess of six figures,” he says. “Governor’s salaries in 2015 range from a low of $70,000 in Maine to high of $184,632 in Pennsylvania, with an average salary of $134,792.”
The increase would take effect for the new governor elected next year.
Farrin says there are many state officials, including judges, that make more than the governor. No one opposed the bill at its public hearing and there are other measures on the table that also give the next governor a pay raise.”
