Pay Raises Upcoming for Indiana’s Highest Elected Officials

Source: Photo: Eric Berman/WIBC)

INDIANAPOLIS- Indiana’s top elected officials will all see a significant pay bump in the next year just as lawmakers convene to craft a budget with little leeway for extra spending. At the very top, Gov. Eric Holcomb’s successor will become one of the highest paid governors in the nation while other offices will see raises between 44% and 66%.

One other office getting a pay raise will be on the November ballot: the race for attorney general. Incumbent Republican Todd Rokita is running for reelection and faces a challenge from Democrat Destiny Wells.

The final version of the budget included a pay raise for six of Indiana’s executive leaders: the governor, the lieutenant governor, the secretary of state, the attorney general, the state treasurer and the state comptroller.

The pay for those offices — along with legislators’ salaries — are statutorily defined as a percentage of the salary of an Indiana Supreme Court justice.

By law, the governor’s salary will be equal to that of a justice at $221,024, a 65% increase from Holcomb’s salary of $133,684. Previously, lawmakers set the office’s salary at $95,000 in 2007, with raises every four years tied to increases for other state employees within that salary bracket.

The raises, drafted in the last few days of the 2023 budget process with no public discussion, were passed before two significant budget hits: a Medicaid shortfall of nearly $1 billion and shrinking reserves. Lawmakers are scheduled to convene in January to draft Indiana’s two-year budget.

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This story was initially posted to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

Lawmakers passed the increases on the last day of session, inserting the language in one of the last versions of the budget bill drafted after public hearings. In 2007, the last time the General Assembly weighed in on salaries, salaries for elected officials were passed in a separate, independently vetted bill.