Even as they have killed pay raises for judges and rank-and-file state employees, Maryland lawmakers are set to give themselves, the governor and other top officials substantial pay raises.
 
 If legislators don't act by Monday, a new law raising the pay for the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller, state treasurer and secretary of state will be enacted automatically and the pay raises will take effect next January. The governor's salary would increase from $120,000 to $150,000 over four years.
 
 If legislators don't act by the time the General Assembly adjourns April 8 -- and their leadership said they don't plan to -- a new law raising lawmakers' salaries will take effect and their pay will start going up next January. Over the next four years, the annual salary for legislators, who are part time, would increase from $31,509 to $43,500.
 
 The leading candidates for governor said yesterday that there should not be pay increases if it is at the expense of other state workers and programs.
 
 "I don't think we ought to be taking pay raises until we ensure that all state employees are getting pay raises," Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D), said through a spokesman.
 
 "The governor, lieutenant governor and legislators should not have pay raises during a fiscal crisis," said Paul Schurick, a spokesman for the leading GOP candidate, U.S. Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
 
 Legislators, however, are moving forward with their pay increases, noting that it has been eight years since their last raise and that under the state constitution, they can increase their salaries only in election years.
 
 "We have not kept up with inflation at all," said House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. (D-Allegany). His pay along with that of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Prince George's) would increase even more, to $56,500.
 
 "It's never politically popular to raise salaries for elected officials," Taylor said. But "it's been been so long since there's been a substantial increase."
 
 But the timing for politicians in an election year is awkward: With more than a $520 million shortfall in state revenue, legislators are struggling to close the gap by looking for cuts in construction projects, forgoing new education aid, trimming environmental programs and canceling cost-of-living raises for state employees.
 
 Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) has enacted across-the-board budget cuts, and a state hiring freeze has been in place since October.
 
 The pay raises are based on recommendations from three independent commissions that examined pay increases for the executive, legislative and judicial branches of state government and issued reports in December.
 
 The commission on judicial pay recommended a 5 percent increase for judges, but legislators rejected that because they said there was not enough money. Circuit Court judges currently make $119,600; the raise would have increased their pay to $125,580.
 
 The salaries of judges and other state employees can be raised any time, but this is the only time during a four-year election cycle when legislative and executive pay can increase. The system is set up that way so lawmakers face voters in an election before the raises take effect.
 
 Many Republican legislators and several Democrats have expressed discomfort over the pay raise at a time when they are looking to cut programs.
 
 "It's wrong when state employees don't get any increase and judges don't get any increase," said Senate Minority Leader J. Lowell Stoltzfus (R-Somerset). "It sends the wrong message to the public -- that we're going to take care of ourselves and not state employees."
 
 Republicans in both the House and Senate have introduced legislation to reduce the pay increase but said they don't expect it to pass.
 
 Even Democrats have weighed in to buck their leadership. "The perception is terrible in an election year," said Del. Dana Lee Dembrow (D-Montgomery). "Everybody is taking a cut except politicians."
 
 Taylor and Miller said it will be possible for legislators individually to reject a pay increase.
 
 Some lawmakers can afford to do that, Miller said, but "there are those who work almost year-around on this job and don't have the time and energy to hold another job" and deserve higher pay.
 
 The current $100,000 salary for lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller and state treasurer would increase over four years to $125,000. The secretary of state's pay would jump from $70,000 to $87,500.
 
 The pay raise also would mean increases in pensions for Maryland's former governors, including Glendening, who leaves office in January. Pensions are based on the salary of the current governor; Glendening's would increase from $60,000 annually to $75,000.
 
 
 
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