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GOP Calls Dayton 'Out Of Touch' Following Cabinet Pay Hike

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Gov. Mark Dayton passed out huge pay hikes Wednesday to his Cabinet, ignoring critics who called him "out of touch" with average Minnesotans.

The governor used a one-time only law to give out the big raises.

The pay hikes range from a few thousand dollars to one appointee who will get an $86,000 bump.

The governor called the pay hikes "competitive" and "necessary," and said in a letter to legislative leaders that the critics of the pay raises are wrong.

"The salaries of high-level public officials are convenient targets for anti-government partisans, who don't understand the sophisticated administrative skills required to provide quality government services and care even less," the governor wrote. "But competitive salaries are essential to attract and retain the best public executives, whose successes, in turn, provide taxpayers with improved services, greater efficiencies, and new innovations, which are worth many times the cost of their salaries."

Eleven Cabinet members will get a $30,000-plus pay hike, pushing their salaries above $150,000 a year.

Five commissioners will make $155,000.

And the chair of the Metropolitan Council will get a full-time job, with an $86,000 raise to $145,000 a year.

Republican leaders denounced the pay hikes, which they said do not reflect reality -- and which exceed the annual income of many Minnesota workers.

"I will say I am not surprised the governor is doing this," said Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt. "I will say I am very disappointed."

"The governor," he added, "is really apparently more out of touch than I thought with Minnesotans."

The House and Senate voted to remove a governor's future ability to raise Cabinet pay, but allow it for one day on July 1, 2015.

Daudt said he had hoped the governor would use his one-day authority to offer more modest raises.

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