Legislative pay freeze takes effect.

Byline: From Register-Guard and news service reports

A yearlong pay freeze in the state legislative branch is now in effect, on the orders of Oregon's Senate president and the speaker of the House.

The freeze comes after recent news reports that a former House Republican leader had awarded onetime bonuses averaging $3,500 to a half-dozen staff members in the House Republican office. Some also received raises.

Separately, nearly 40 employees in nonpartisan legislative offices have received regular ``step'' or merit increases. Those raises were decided by administrators in the offices that provide legal, financial and other support for the legislative system.

Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said Saturday that the order to freeze wages, as well as a crackdown on state travel, had been in the works for four to six weeks, long before media reports Wednesday revealed the pay increases and bonuses.

Courtney said he met with House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village, weeks ago after learning about conference travel expenses and support staff raises that seemed excessive in light of lean economic times.

He was surprised by the raises, he said, because he thought there was an understanding among lawmakers that no raises would be handed out this year.

Courtney and Minnis noted in a memo last week that employees and managers in the executive branch - which is overseen by the governor and includes most state employees - have been under a pay freeze since July 1.

However, Minnis and Courtney said, until Tuesday's memo, legislative officials had not ordered an official pay freeze for the legislative branch. Money used to operate the Legislature comes from the tax-supported general fund.

Their order, they said, covers cost-of-living and merit increases as well as bonuses. The memo also said that at least one of them must approve in advance all out-of-state business travel.

The pay freeze did not apply to legislators' personal staff members. Their salaries are paid from the legislators' personal staff allotment, which the individual legislators control.

In addition to the House GOP office raises, one of the speaker's employees and one staff member in the Senate Republican office received raises.

Courtney said the Democratic office gave no raises or pay increases.

He said that after the session ended, he met with the staff who decided, "given all the freezes and layoffs, it would be inappropriate to give any raises," he said. "I thought that's what everyone was doing."

Rep. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, approved the bonuses and raises in the GOP office before he gave up his position as House Republican leader early this month. Knopp said the employees' performance merited the raises. The bonuses, he said, went to help employees who might lose their jobs, although none did.

Courtney acknowledged that the raises may have been warranted. "It wasn't that people didn't deserve it." he said. "It just wasn't the right time."

The bonuses on average were 10 times the size of the $350 one-time bonuses to state workers and managers - money meant to help cover health-care cost increases, but which were condemned by some Republican leaders as excessive.

Oregon Republican Party Chairman Kevin Mannix, who recently called for the state to reduce budgets by taking back the $350 bonuses, said last week that the bonuses and pay increases approved by Knopp showed poor judgment.

Rep. Diane Rosenbaum, D-Portland, an assistant House Democratic office leader, said Knopp's decision ``sends exactly the wrong message at a time of budget austerity.'' The Democratic office, she said, has given no raises or bonuses.

``As far as taxpayers are concerned,'' she said, ``they expect the Legislature to live by the same standard as all other employees.''

Knopp is not running for re-election. Rep. Wayne Scott, R-Canby, has taken up duties as House Republican leader.