SOCC Wants To Up Legislator, Governor Salaries 25 Percent

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 04/30/2025) The State Officers Compensation Commission (SOCC) unanimously passed a determination that, if approved by the state Legislature, would raise pay for the Legislators, Supreme Court Justices, Governor, Secretary of State and Attorney General by 25 percent.

The Governor would be raised by $38,825 to $198,125; Lieutenant Governor raised by $27,977 to $139,487; Supreme Court judges by $45,371 to $226,853; Legislators raised by $17,921 to $89,594; Attorney General and Secretary of State both raised $28,102 to $140,512.

“I’ll be honest with you, I’m highly doubtful that this is going to happen because of the current political environment, and it has been for a while. It’s just unfortunate that it’s not tied more to consumer price index or cost of living or something to where people are compensated for the work they do,” SOCC Chair Tom Cochran said.

The House and Senate would each need to vote affirmatively to approve the recommendation, which doesn't seem likely based on House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township)'s response to a question on Wednesday about whether he would be open to the SOCC recommendations for a pay increase.

“No,” Hall said flatly, adding later. “We're not going to raise our pay.”

The move came after a discussion by SOCC during Wednesday’s meeting that showed if the salaries of elected officials followed the consumer price index since they were enacted in 2092, they would be 36.7 percent higher than they are today. If the determination made by the commission was passed through the Legislature, it would take effect Jan. 1, 2027.

Former Sen. Gilda Jacobs, who was elected chair of the board at the end of the meeting, said a legislator from southeast Oakland County raising a family of four with their current salary would be considered Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, or ALICE.

ALICE households are above the federal poverty level, but don’t make enough to afford the basics for where they live.

“They’re teetering almost at the poverty level. This is not how we attract people to run for office. How can we keep people to stay in office?” Jacobs asked.

She raised the question about how to fix the broken payment system that exists in Michigan.

“If we really do want the best and brightest folks, we’re going to have to really make some major changes,” Jacobs said.

She wondered if there was some law that could be passed to help increase the pay for elected officials in the Michigan government.

“Not unless someone wants to find a couple billion dollars to buy some signatures for a petition drive,” said SOCC Executive Secretary John Gnodtke.

Gnodtke said since 2002, after a Constitutional ballot was passed regarding how salaries were raised, there had been only two changes made: one in 2011 with a 10 percent reduction granted by SOCC and approved by the Legislature, and the second in 2023, when a 5 percent increase was given to the Supreme Court Justices after they dropped below the pay rate of the appellate courts, which only passed in lame duck in 2024.

One idea was brought before the SOCC by Supreme Court Justice Brian Zahra when he and Supreme Court Chief Justice Megan Cavanagh proposed two 11 percent increases to the judges on the Supreme Court that would keep them from slipping below the amount made by the Court of Appeals judges again.

“The Justices of the Michigan Supreme Court had become the lowest paid judges in Michigan. The system cannot be fixed without a constitutional amendment and the legislators have it in their power to place an alternative system on the ballot and ask the electorate whether a change is in order,” Zahra said.

Jacobs suggested a letter to the editor or opinion to be written up that would try to appeal to the people of Michigan and help them understand what the issue of compensation was doing to the political system in the state.

Deputy Attorney General Peter Manning, along with a proposed increase to the Attorney General’s Office, asked why there was no expense allowance for the office.

"Maybe this is a bit of a quixotic quest – this is my one literary reference. Maybe, I’m Don Quixote knocking at windmills, but if you don’t do anything then it’s going to remain the status quo,” Manning said.

The commission did unanimously pass a second determination that would increase the expense allowances for the Secretary of State and Attorney General to $18,000, which is equal to the allowance of the Lt. Governor.

SOCC member Buzz Thomas first introduced it as a friendly amendment to the 25 percent first raised by Larry Nolan, but Nolan said he would like to see it as a separate determination, because it could be used to sink the 25 percent increase.

Nolan said in an interview with MIRS that when he was first appointed to the commission he was appalled by the compensation given to people elected in Michigan.

“It’s not whether somebody is a Democrat or Republican. It’s really a neutral issue,” Nolan said.

He said there was a simple way to explain it to the electorate, in that people who are working, regardless of whether it is in public or private, should be fairly compensated for the work they are doing.

“You could ask any one of my employees, if they hadn’t gotten a raise from 2001 to today, would they still be looking to me for those answers?” Nolan said.

He said the answer that public servants already make too much money, and they should be doing the job because of the service to the public, made those in the office feel like they were being punished for taking the job.

“Sometimes we measure appreciation in terms of compensation, even if it’s just a small raise, people will say thank you and I think it’s very important that because you are a civil servant, you don’t lose the ability to say thank you for the increase in pay,” he said.

The biggest roadblock faced would be getting the raise through the Legislature, and Nolan said that was where the Constitutional amendment would come into play.

He said it would need to tie salaries to something like the consumer price index or to median wages of the state, like the state of Alabama did with their Legislature.

Nolan pointed to the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as being something that takes commitment to stay after being subjected.

“I would be concerned for my safety and even though our governor’s been afforded the security of the state police, in today’s day and age, to me, it’s not worth the $165,000 that the governor is being compensated,” Nolan said.