Compensation Commission                             2619

I. SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE
GENERAL ASSEMBLY COMPENSATION COMMISSION

1.    An annual salary of eleven thousand dollars ($11,000) for each
member of the General Assembly, payable bi-weekly.

2.    An annual salary of thirteen thousand dollars ($13,000) each for
the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Delegates,
payable bi-weekly.

3.    Reimbursement upon a vouchered basis for the actual expenses of
members of the General Assembly incurred for meals and lodging when in
attendance at sessions of that body or of the Legislative Council, and at
committee or subcommittee meetings of either, with a limit of twenty-five
dollars ($25) per day per member, with an additional travel reimbursement
for actual expenses in connection with attendance at such sessions or
meetings not exceeding ten cents (10¢) per mile.

4.    Abolition of the present twenty-five dollar ($25) "per diem" ex-
pense reimbursement paid to a member for each day the General Assembly
is in session and for which no accounting is required.

5.    Abolition of the present thirty-five ($35) "per diem" compensation
paid to a member for attendance at meetings of the Legislative Council
and committees or subcommittees thereof.

6.    An optional contributory pension plan by the terms of which a
member would contribute five percent (5%) of his annual salary and in
turn would receive a credit of two and one-half percent (2½%) of his
highest annual salary for each year of service, with the maximum annual
pension being sixty percent (60%) of his highest annual salary.

7.    The pension is payable for life commencing at age sixty (60),
provided that at that time he has at least eight (8) years of service as a
member of the General Assembly, except that the pension may not be
received by the member during a period when he is a compensated employee
or official of the State of Maryland or is receiving another State pension.

8.    Members with paid-up past years of service under the statutory
pension plan presently in effect will receive a benefit for those years of
service based upon the provisions of that plan, and for years of service in
the future will receive benefits based upon the recommended pension plan.

9.    Other features of this plan include: an early pension actuarially
reduced for members no longer in service who are at least age fifty (50);
a spouse's pension equal to one-half (½) of the pension being received by
the member at his death, or to which he would have been entitled at age
sixty (60); a return of contributions plus interest thereon for members,
or their designees in the event of their death, in lieu of the pension benefit;
the right of a member whose service is terminated at less than eight (8)
years to contribute both the State's share and the member's share for the
balance of those eight (8) years and thus to become entitled to a pension
allowance; the right of a present member with years of service prior to
1971 to elect to have all of his years of service calculated under the statutory
pension plan presently in effect and to receive the benefits thereunder at
the times and otherwise in accordance with that plan.

10.    The provisions of this proposed pension plan are not available
to former members of the General Assembly with no future years of service
in that body, nor was it the intent of the Commission to affect the pensions