Missouri state employees' paychecks - and the lack of substantial raises to those checks in recent years - were at the top of the list in the last couple of weeks, as lawmakers debated whether to accept proposed raises for themselves and the statewide elected officials.
The elected officials' raises were proposed last November by the constitutionally required Missouri Citizens' Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials.
The 21-member commission said both senators and representatives should get 11-percent raises in each of the next two years, from their current, $35,915 a year salaries, and the six statewide elected officials - governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer and attorney general - should receive 8- to 10-percent increases.
Missouri voters amended the state Constitution in 1994, creating the compensation commission, requiring it to study the officials' salaries and recommend a compensation schedule to be effective unless two-thirds of the members in each Chamber disapprove the proposal before Feb. 1 of the year following the filing of the schedule.
State Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, sponsored the resolution rejecting the proposed increases, which the House passed by a 133-15 margin.
But two senators talked against the resolution for an hour last Wednesday, and Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, withdrew his motion seeking passage of the resolution - and, later, told reporters he didn't plan to try again Thursday.
So, at noon Wednesday, it appeared the raises would go into effect because the Senate had not voted to disapprove the commission's report.
But Thursday morning's Senate session began with Sen. Mike Cunningham, R-Rogersville, telling colleagues: "I was very embarrassed, disappointed and frustrated by what transpired here (Wednesday). ...
"When I leave here, as I pass a state trooper (or) a MoDOT employee - or this weekend in the supermarket as I pass a Social Services worker or a prison employee in my district, I have to walk past them and look them in the face - and tell them, "In the very near future, I'm getting an 11-percent raise and you get nothing. Zero. Nothing.'
"I think that's an embarrassment to our state of Missouri."
Cunningham said he was working on a proposed constitutional amendment - that Missouri voters would have to approve - requiring the Legislature to vote to approve the commission's recommendations rather than allow them to go into effect if one chamber or the other didn't vote.
After Cunningham's brief comments, Schaaf again asked for a vote on Barnes' resolution to reject the raises and - almost 90 minutes later - the Senate approved the resolution by a 31-3 vote.
Sen. Jason Holsman, D-Kansas City - and one of the two senators who had guided Wednesday's hour-long opposition - said Thursday they had backed away from blocking the vote, after winning the Senate leadership's promise "to try to increase state workers' pay" during this year's budget-writing efforts.
Several years ago, the Legislature's Joint Interim Committee on State Employee Wages determined Missouri's average employee salary was at the bottom of the list, when compared with the other 49 states.
And, using federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2012, the Pew Charitable Trusts reported the same thing and showed Missouri's average state employee earned $38,195 a year, compared with $43,134 for the average private sector employee.
Pew's website didn't have a more recent comparison.
Cunningham had reminded the Senate Thursday morning: "The last significant pay raise for state employees was 3 percent - in 2009.
"Last year, they received 1 percent. In Fiscal Year 13 (July 1, 2012-June 30, 2013), they received 2 percent."
But elected officials got "an 8 percent raise in 2009," Cunningham noted.
Missouri's elected officials' average salary places the state 16th among the 50 states.
Holsman said he never intended to be part of a long filibuster - but he did agree with Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, that lawmakers and the statewide elected officials should be paid for the time they actually spend on the job.
During Wednesday's and Thursday's debates, Chappelle-Nadal noted - while a lawmaker's job is considered to be part-time, and some lawmakers have other jobs they do when they're not at the Capitol - "The rest of the work that many of us do is, still, full-time and goes on all year long."
Holsman told her: "The non-session schedule is up to each legislator."
He also said lawmakers should put their trust in the constitutional amendment voters approved just more than 20 years ago and accept the recommendations the Salary Commission made.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, said during the floor debate that state employees are important and he would look to see if raises are possible.
"I'm also going to make a commitment to K-12 (elementary and secondary) education," Schaefer said, "and to higher education and a whole lot of other priorities we've talked about."
With a tight budget and slow revenue growth, he said, it may be hard to put everything in the budget.
No one during the debates mentioned the impact of mileage or per-diem allowances on lawmakers' total compensation.
Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, told reporters after Thursday's vote: "We want to see our state employees taken care of before we ever give consideration to the challenges that we have as state legislators."
Sen. Mike Kehoe and Rep. Mike Bernskoetter, both R-Jefferson City, remain committed to getting a total compensation survey comparing Missouri state employees' salaries and benefits with their counterparts in other states.
"There has been no comprehensive compensation plan study conducted since 1983," Bernskoetter said. "And in order to compare wages of employees performing the same duties, you truly must consider all the benefits those employees are receiving in addition to their salary."
Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed a $300,000 appropriation for that study, which lawmakers approved last year.
Landon Reeves, of the News Tribune, contributed information used in this story.