While state government salaries have been rising in recent years, one has taken a dip – the governor’s.
Records show Democrat Maggie Hassan is getting paid about $3,000 less than predecessor John Lynch, and it’s not because of her gender or her experience. Hassan requested a smaller paycheck.
New Hampshire’s chief executive can largely set his or her own salary, so long as it doesn’t exceed a certain ceiling. Right now that limit is about $130,000 a year, putting the governor’s pay in the upper salary echelon of state government.
Since taking the corner office in 2013, Hassan has requested an annual salary of $110,420. Her pay can vary slightly depending on how many days she works in a year, but she has also refused recent pay raises given to state workers.
The seven major candidates vying to replace Hassan – who is now running for U.S. Senate – diverge on their own compensation plans if they became the state’s next chief executive. While several pledged to take reduced salaries, others said they would draw the full pay allowed.
Governors have typically cut their own compensation during tough budget times.
Hassan opted for a smaller salary than Lynch’s to match the 3 percent reduction she asked state agencies make in their own spending, according to spokesman William Hinkle.
“She felt it appropriate to follow the same standard that she had requested for state agency budgets,” he said. Hassan has kept her salary flat from year-to-year, Hinkle said, “in light of the staffing challenges faced by some state agencies.”
In 2014 and 2015, Hassan made $110,719, according to updated state salary records available online. She made slightly less in 2013 because she didn’t work a full year due to the date of her inauguration.
Lynch earned $113,834 during his last three years of office, a drop from the $118,121 he made in earlier terms, records show. The Democrat cut his own pay by more than $4,000 in 2009 as the state dealt with budget struggles in post-recession years, he said in a recent email interview.
By contrast, Republican Gov. Craig Benson, whose wealth was estimated at $600 million in 2001 by Forbes, didn’t accept a salary at all during his two-year term in the early 2000s. New Hampshire was facing tough budget times, Benson said in an email interview, and he used his pay as bonus money for state employees.
Four candidates running to replace Hassan said they would take smaller salaries than allowed by state law. Republican Chris Sununu indicated he would accept full compensation if elected governor. None of the candidates who answered the Monitor inquiry said they would forgo the paycheck entirely.
Republicans Ted Gatsas, the Manchester mayor, and state Sen. Jeanie Forrester did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Gubernatorial contenders don’t have to disclose their current salaries in a required financial interest statement, so it’s not clear whether any would make more or less money in the corner office than right now. All seven candidates report earning more than $10,000 in their current lines of work.
Sununu, an executive councilor who is also CEO of Waterville Valley Resort, would “accept the salary set by statute,” according to spokesman David Abrams.
Republican Frank Edelblut and Democrats Mark Connolly, Steve Marchand and Colin Van Ostern pledged to take some salary reduction. Edelblut and Connolly indicated they would accept Hassan’s current pay.
“I do not see a need to increase the salary that the governor is taking, and I think it is a good idea for the Legislature to continually take a look at top-level salaries funded by taxpayers,” said Edelblut, a first-term state representative from Wilton.
“Like Gov. Hassan, I will take a reduced salary at the same rate and decline pay raises granted to state employees offered during my term,” Connolly, a Seacoast businessman, said in a statement. “State employees make government work; they, not elected leaders, deserve those raises.”
Steve Marchand, a former Portsmouth mayor, said he will “be continuing the policy of Gov. Hassan’s office regarding salary and will be instituting a reduction.”
Van Ostern, an executive councilor, currently forgoes one-third of his $6,000 state-funded travel stipend each year “in order to set a fiscally responsible example and conserve state funds,” said spokesman Matt Trojan. “As governor, he will continue this track record.” Trojan didn’t name a specific salary figure.
New Hampshire’s governor makes considerably more money than other state elected officials.
The five executive councilors earn $16,420 a year and also receive $6,000 annually in travel compensation, according to the Department of Administrative Services. The councilor from District 1, which includes the North Country, gets a slightly higher travel stipend of $7,500.
Senate and House members earn just $100 a year, but they are reimbursed for their mileage.
One of Hassan’s security guards, state police Sgt. Scott Frye, earned more than the governor, totaling $124,782 in salary and overtime in 2015.
Hassan would get a raise if elected to the U.S. Senate in November. Members there make $174,000 a year.
(Allie Morris can be reached at 369-3307, amorris@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @amorrisNH.)