Salary council recommends raises for top Minnesota officials. Gov. Tim Walz won’t take the increase.

A state council responsible for determining salaries of top state officials is recommending raises for all of Minnesota’s statewide constitutional officers, including larger bumps for the offices of the governor and attorney general.

Once again, DFL Gov. Tim Walz said he won’t accept a raise in his pay, but a future governor could be paid $200,000 starting in 2026 under the recommendations.

The council’s recommendations, which could be finalized and adopted this spring, would increase the salary for governor from $149,550 to $174,775 this year before hitting $200,000.

Walz’s salary is currently $127,629, which it was raised to in 2016. Walz, who was first elected in 2018, has rejected previous increases recommended by the council.

“I think I work hard,” Walz said. “But ... this is about the state workforce. I don’t want this to be an issue about the governor trying to pay himself. I think I’m compensated fairly by the state of Minnesota for the work I do at this point.”

Walz is considering running for a third term as governor in 2026. Minnesota Republican Party Chair Alex Plechash was critical of the proposed increases for the governor and lieutenant governor position, which is currently held by DFLer Peggy Flanagan. Flanagan said she is also not taking the pay raise.

“Minnesota is facing a $6 billion deficit, education is failing, fraud is out of control,” Plechash said in a statement, noting a several-week boycott from Democrats in the House earlier this session.

“We’ve already paid House Democrats over $300,000 this session to not show up for work.”

The council’s report notes that Minnesota’s governor pay currently ranks below the middle of the pack, and members compared the governor’s pay with that of other jobs.

Every member of the state’s judiciary and hundreds of employees in state agencies currently make more than the governor, who runs a workforce of more than 40,000 employees and helps set a two-year budget of $66 billion, according to the report.

“Other states have taken action to recognize that governors and other elected officials should be paid salaries commensurate with their responsibilities,” reads the report.

“There are certainly non-monetary considerations that motivate candidates to run for the highest executive offices in the state. However, the natural consequence of the increasing compensation gap is that candidates who have greater personal financial constraints are less likely to run for office.”

The Legislature changed the law in 2023 to require the council — which has bipartisan membership appointed by state leaders — to determine the salaries for constitutional officers without approval from lawmakers.

They also recommend raising the salary of Minnesota’s attorney general to $166,036 this year and $190,000 in 2026. Similar to the governor, the council said there are 74 members of staff and 37 attorneys in the attorney general’s office who earn salaries higher than the attorney general, and the salary lags behind county attorneys. Minnesota’s current attorney general is Democrat Keith Ellison.

The council is recommending smaller pay bumps over the next two years for other state offices, all currently held by Democrats. All statewide offices are on the ballot in 2026.

The council also has the power to determine the salaries for the heads of state agencies and is recommending a $3.9% increase in 2025 and a 4% increase in 2026.

The executive director of the state’s new Office of Cannabis Management should make $195,568 by 2026, according to the report. Walz hasn’t appointed a permanent head to the office since September 2023, when his pick, Erin Dupree, resigned amid reports that she sold illegal cannabis products.

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