ATLANTA (Georgia Recorder) — Legislation passed by the Senate on Thursday would place the Georgia governor at the top of the list of high-paid governors in the nation and significantly increase the salaries of the attorney general, House and Senate leaders, and several other key officials.
The Senate voted 45-10 to approve a revised House Bill 86 that would increase the governor’s annual salary from $182,000 to $250,000 for next year. Several state court judges will receive higher salaries under the legislation, while the attorney general, state school superintendent, secretary of state, and agricultural, insurance, and labor commissioners will receive annual salaries of $200,000.
Now that the bill has been amended by the Senate, the changes must be adopted by the House before the session concludes on April 4.
According to data collected by the Council of State Governments on gubernatorial salaries for 2022, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s pay raise will move him from 10th highest earning to tied for first with Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York.
Sen. John Albers, a Roswell Republican, said the new salaries will provide uniformity among several executive officers while also addressing disparities, such as the governor earning less than the Atlanta mayor’s $236,000 salary. The bill would set the other salaries at $200,000, based on 80% of the governor’s salary.
“This simply sets the governor’s salary at $250,000, which I believe is appropriate, but then it falls in line with our constitutional officers and the speaker of the House,” Albers said.
“I think it actually will bring us up to where we need to be. If you look at constitutional officers like the speaker of the House, they sometimes make twice as much money as them,” Albers said.
According to the open.ga.gov database, the reported salaries in 2024 for six Georgia public officials who could get pay bumps through HB 86 were: Attorney General Chris Carr with $146,000; $131,000 for Insurance Commissioner John King and State School Superintendent Richard Woods; Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger made $125,637; $106,000 for House Speaker Jon Burns, and $98,000 for Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.
In comparison, the Council for State Governments reported that the average salary for secretary of states nationally was $121,628 in 2022, with Arizona paying the lowest salary at $70,000, while Tennessee had the highest at $222,252.
The report also says that the 2022 national average salaries for state attorneys general was $139,000. New York’s AG led the nation with $220,000 while Oregon’s $82,200 ranked last. Some lawmakers questioned the wisdom of giving such large raises to top Georgia executives at the same time.
Stone Mountain Democratic Sen. Kim Jackson said she supported the higher salaries but had reservations about the raises taking effect this summer instead of waiting until next year when Georgia’s next elections for state offices will be held.
“Isn’t it true that we typically do salary increases to be effective for the next election cycle, not during the time when people want to see it as a decision,” Jackson said.
Albers said he understands why government officials may hold off from publicly requesting better pay in order to avoid being accused of supporting their own pay raises.
There is also an added layer of scrutiny about elected officials raising pay during an election year, Albers said.
“We can find a reason each and every year to not do this,” he said. “This is the right time, the right year to do this.”
Under the bill, the General Assembly would approve salaries for Supreme Court justices and judges for the Court of Appeals, state Business Court and Tax Court based on pay of judges for the United States District Court for Northern Georgia, who currently earn $247,400, according to U.S. Courts government website..
The justices could earn equal pay to the federal district court judges while the other state judges could earn 95-99% of the U.S. district court judges.
