Lawmaker: Gibbons should take same pay cut as workers

CARSON CITY -- Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said Monday that the governor should tell lawmakers he'll take the same pay cut that state workers face.

Horsford noted that legislation cutting salaries for the governor and other constitutional officers won't take effect until January 2011, while proposed cuts for state workers take effect July 1.

Salaries for state elected officials can't be reduced when they're halfway through their terms.

However, lawmakers said Gov. Jim Gibbons can voluntarily reduce his pay.

"I would love for the governor to come here and tell us on the record he will take a pay cut," Horsford said.

Gibbons' deputy chief of staff, Mendy Elliott, said the governor pledged during his State of the State address in January to cut his own pay by the same percentage that state workers face.

The proposed budget contains a one-day unpaid furlough each month for all state workers.

That proposal works out to about 4.6 percent less pay.