By Philip Rawls, Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – Many Republican legislative candidates won elections by criticizing Democratic lawmakers for pushing through a 61 percent pay raise as the state was headed into a recession. But now that Republicans have a majority in the Legislature for the first time in 136 years, they're not certain what to do about the nearly $19,000 increase.
Newly elected Republican legislators said the pay raise didn't come up when they held their first meetings in private Thursday. And they said there is no party consensus on an issue they used to fuel voter anger against Democrats.
But the new GOP leaders of the House and Senate, Mike Hubbard and Del Marsh, say they would like to take out the automatic annual increases that were built into the pay raise legislation.