Nevada attorney general, controller to keep 6 percent pay raise

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and state Controller Kim Wallin said they will keep a 6 percent pay raise that takes effect this month.

Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval last week said he wouldn't accept the automatic raise and urged other constitutional officers to do the same.

The Las Vegas Sun reported Thursday that Masto and Wallin said they will take the pay hike, but voluntarily continue a 4.6 percent reduction imposed in 2009 on other state workers who have been required to take an unpaid furlough day each month.

Sandoval has suggested a continuation of furloughs or other salary cutbacks are likely.

Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki and Secretary of State Ross Miller say they won't accept the raise.

State Treasurer Kate Marshall said she won't take the pay raise either, but she also will no longer give back 4.6 percent. The 6 percent increase would have boosted her salary from $97,000 to $102,898.

Forgoing both, she said, would amount to a 10.6 percent penalty.

Under state law, elected officials get raises equal to those given to state classified employees over the previous four years. State workers received 2 percent in July 2007 and 4 percent in July 2008, though those raises were subsequently reduced by furloughs.

At the same time, the state Constitution says no elected official's salary may be increased or decreased during his term in office.

Masto's salary will jump to $141,086, up from $133,000.

Wallin said she has already forfeited $16,684 because she didn't get raises in 2007 and 2008 when the pay of state workers was increased. Wallin's pay will rise from $97,000 to $102,898.

"I'm already standing in solidarity with state workers," she told the Sun.

Sandoval's salary would have increased by $8,500 to $149,573. Krolicki, whose job isn't full-time, was due for a boost from $60,000 to $63,684. He has said given the state's budget crisis, now isn't the time to take a raise.

Miller, according to an office spokeswoman, already told the 2009 Legislature he wouldn't be accepting the increase. His salary would have risen from $97,000 to $102,898.

The law also increases the salary of state legislators from $130 a day to $146.39 per day. Lawmakers only get paid for the first 60 days of the 120-day session that begins Feb. 7.