Branstad’s salary in the bottom half of states’ top executives

DES MOINES - Iowa's $130,000 yearly gubernatorial salary - unchanged since 2005 - has slipped to 28th nationally in a state-by-state comparison. But that doesn't bother Gov. Terry Branstad, who says he's not in it for the money.

The latest survey conducted by the Council of State Governments pegs the average annual salary for U.S. governors in 2015 at $135,289 - up 0.5 percent from the average in 2014. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has the highest gubernatorial salary at $190,823, while Maine Gov. Paul Lepage earns the lowest yearly pay, at $70,000.

Iowa, which rose to No. 16 in the gubernatorial pay rankings a decade ago when lawmakers and then-Gov. Tom Vilsack approved a 17.3 percent increase as part of a boost for all state-level elected officials, now is more than $5,000 below the national average and is tied with Louisiana behind 27 other states.

'I'm not surprised because we haven't made any changes in our salary structure for our top elected officials in some time,” said Branstad, who took a sizable pay cut when he stepped down as president of Des Moines University to seek a fifth term in 2010.

'I don't think that most people run for governor because of the salary. They do it because they feel a calling to serve the people or something like that,” Branstad said.

'I really look at public service as something that you've got to be willing to make a sacrifice,” he added. 'The most important thing is to be able to make a difference in helping people.”

While most private-sector organizations place the chief executive officer at the top of the compensation scale, the public sector plays by different rules given the political sensitivity that goes along with committing more taxpayer dollars to the salaries of elected officials, said Tim Hagle, a University of Iowa associate professor of political science who focuses on policy-making and budgeting.

'It's always politically sensitive and tough to do,” Hagle said. 'Folks will tell you, if you're looking to make a ton of money, you can't really do it in the public sector - at least not honestly.”

The latest salary book put out by the state Department of Personnel indicated that 2,294 out of nearly 60,000 state employees made more than $130,000 in fiscal 2014.

'I don't worry about those things,” said Branstad, who doubted there would be interest in an election-year legislative session for revisiting Iowa's compensation levels for state-level elected officials, given that a proposal floated two years ago quickly turned into a political football.

Salaries for Iowa legislators and top statewide elected officials - governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, auditor, treasurer and secretaries of state and agriculture - were last raised in 2005.

In 2008, then-Gov. Chet Culver vetoed a bill that would have boosted the governor's salary by 9.7 percent to $142,570 and provided double-digit pay increases for other statewide elected officials. He said the raises couldn't be justified given the state and nation's deteriorating economic conditions.

Iowa law prohibits legislators from raising their own pay, so any change that might be enacted by the current Legislature would not take effect until the 87th General Assembly was seated in January 2017.

'Last session, the governor asked for a 9 percent raise for his own office while underfunding our schools,” said House Democratic Leader Mark Smith of Marshalltown. 'After blindsiding schools with his reckless vetoes this summer, the governor does not deserve a raise of any kind.”

Governors in 13 states saw their salaries increase in 2015 over 2014 levels, according to the council that has been collecting data on governors' salaries since 1937. The average salary increase for those 13 governors was $2,431, with raises ranging from 0.4 percent to three percent.

According to the latest Council of State Governments's survey, governors in three states - Alabama, Florida and Tennessee - do not accept a paycheck or they return their salaries to the state, while Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder returns all but $1 of his salary to the state.

Several governors have taken voluntary salary reductions in recent years, including Kentucky's Steve Beshear, New Hampshire's Maggie Hassan, New York's Andrew Cuomo and Vermont's Peter Shumlin.

Governors' salaries: The top 10 spots, plus Iowa

1. Pennsylvania $190,823

2. Tennessee * $184,632

3. New York ** $179,000

4. California $177,467

5. Illinois $177,412

6. New Jersey $175,000

Tie Virginia $175,000

7. Delaware $171,000

8. Massachusetts $151,800

9. Washington $166,891

10. Michigan $159,300

... and tied with Louisiana at No. 28 Iowa $130,000

* Gov. Bill Haslam returns his salary to the state.

** Gov. Andrew Cuomo voluntarily reduced his salary by 5 percent.

Source: The Council of State Governments Survey, Book of the States: The Governors: Compensation, Staff, Travel and Residence, 2015