This is an era of rising public salaries – not just with Congress and high-echelon federal people but on a state basis and in some situations reaching down through the schools and local government levels. Time was, here in Utah – and not too far back, either – that a law required that nobody in state govemment could make more than the govemor. While specific needs might have required some judicious exceptions to that rule, repeal of the law seemed to pull the stops. As of November 1974, 58 Utah state employees were making more than the governor, according to a state auditor’s office source. ” V By November 1976 the governor’s salary had gone up to $40,000 – but at that time salaries of lll state employees were still higher than the govemor’s. The list probably will be still longer when reported later this year in the bi-yearly report of executive compensation compiled by the legislative analyst. It’s with appointive officials associated with education and health that the biggest salaries apparently are paid. The pay of top elective officials seems fairlywell in line: Govemor, $40,000; attorney general, $30,000; lieutenant governor, state auditor, and state treasurer, $26,500. The chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court receives $36,500, and associate justices $35,500. Other judges in Utah are paid from slightly over $30,000 for circuit judges to $33,500 for district and juvenile judges, according to a press association accotmt. It’s salaries of some appointive officials that seem to be outdistancing the field and maybe the pocketbooks of the taxpayers. in some instances, these salaries arenproposed by non-elected boa s and officials. Accordingjto a survey made by Associated ress, the president of University of Utah, at $63,000 a year, gets the top salary paid by the state. His benefits include use of a home and a car, says AP. The state’s second-highest paid official, is the commissioner of higher education, $54,888 a year. Next are the clinical director at the Utah State Hospital and a deputy director of the Utah Department of Health who make $53,100 each, followed by a psychiatrist at the state hospital, $49,812. The state medical examiner received $48,600 prior to his replacement last weekend; the president of Weber State College, $48,000; the superintendent of public instruction, $46,500. Accenting the big bounce salaries of some top state people have taken in recent years, the pgesident of University of Utah s gone from $41,500 in 1974 to the present $63,000. Is the salary trend for the top appointive officials in keeping with the current effort to contro taxes? It would appear Gov. Scott Matheson has some doubts on this. In one of his recent messages on economy he specifically mentioned salaries paid at University of Utah. True, the salaries cited above are for very top people, But once pacesetter salaries are set, can others continue to remain far behind? We would like to see the Legislature initiate some type of program for closer scrutiny of public salaries and tighter control in setting them. Maybe it’s time to reinstitute a version of the law that held top state salaries to the level of the govemor’s. In our view, there needs also to be some type of coordination of salaries at the different levels of government and in the schools to eliminate inequities. We recommend also a review of the practice employed in some units of salary increases by percentage in which cases the highly-paid get big increases and t.he poorly-paid get small increases. The whole question of dpublic salaries is a hot one to han e, but we believe it needs continual examination – and with public input to be sure the trends approved are in keeping with the people’s desires.