• Are legislators underpaid or overpaid? Two Bend Republicans – Rep. Knute Buehler and Sen. Tim Knopp – say they will ask the 2017 Legislature to rescind legislators’ 2.75 percent pay increase that took effect Dec. 1. Buehler and Knopp, who hold political aspirations beyond their current roles, say they will donate their additional pay to Central Oregon charities because state law doesn’t let them refuse the increases.

Legislators automatically got the increase because state managers received a raise.

Current state law (ORS 171.072) establishes legislators’ salaries as the larger of either “One step below the maximum of Salary Range 1 in the Management Service Compensation Plan in the executive department” or 17 percent of a circuit judge’s salary.

Ah, but that will change this year. As of July 1, the Public Officials Compensation Commission will give recommendations on elected officials’ pay — including legislators’ — to the Legislature.

With their raise, legislators now are paid $2,018 per month – $24,216 annually. That amount, by the way, would fall below the federal poverty line for Oregon if a legislator were the only wage earner in a four-person household.

Oregon holds onto the concept of citizen-legislator — that this is a part-time job. In contrast, the two presiding officers — House Speaker Tina Kotek and Senate President Peter Courtney — make twice the regular legislative pay.

Within four or five years, Oregon’s increased minimum wage conceivably could require a boost in legislative salaries. A separate state law requires that an annual “salary” be at least 2,080 hours times the minimum wage.

• Getting back to work: The Oregon Legislature will meet next week … and then go home for the rest of the month.

Historically, the Legislature accomplished little during the first weeks of its biennial sessions. The time largely was spent organizing the Legislature, getting new members partially up to speed and holding informational hearings on bills.

That changed — for the better — after voters in 2010 approved annual sessions. That constitutional amendment set time limits of 160 days for sessions in odd-numbered years, such as this year, and 35 days in even-numbered years. The limits forced legislative leaders to use their time better.

The 2017 Legislature will meet Monday through Wednesday, Jan. 11-13, to organize itself. Newly elected lawmakers will be sworn in, legislative committees will meet and bills will be read in the House and Senate – although bills rarely are read in full, except as a stalling tactic.

In the state Senate, 738 bills have been filed so far.

The legislative clock won’t start until Wednesday, Feb. 1, when the 2017 session officially begins.

• Turmoil or typical turnover? Gov. Kate Brown’s chief of staff, Kristen Leonard, has resigned effective Jan. 31. Abby Tibbs, who had been working for the governor’s office temporarily and was to officially become deputy chief of staff on Jan. 23, also resigned.

Brown’s office is casting this as normal turnover, noting that Leonard had committed to serving only one year. But it’s odd that Tibbs had been appointed to the deputy position on Dec. 9 — and now both she and her expected boss are exiting.

Leonard and Tibbs were the subject of recent news stories and editorials about potential conflicts of interest. Leonard and her husband own a company that provides software under a contract with the state. State agencies use the software to track legislation, and the company’s contract is up for renewal this spring. As for Tibbs, she was associate vice president of government relations at Oregon Health & Science University, a role that included lobbying state government.

Meanwhile, Brown’s communications director and longtime friend, Kristen Grainger, resigned as of Dec. 31. Grainger will become president of the Oregon Alliance of Independent College and Universities, which represents 12 private institutions. In that role, she succeeds former Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron Saxton.

Vince Porter, who was Brown’s jobs and economy policy adviser, left last month to become vice president of public affairs at Strategies 360. Former Gov. John Kitzhaber’s communications director and deputy director, Tim Raphael and Ian Greenfield, also work for Strategies 360.

It’s intriguing that ex-Brown and ex-Kitzhaber staffers wind up at the same place. There is not a warm relationship between Kitzhaber and Brown, who was elevated to the governorship when he abruptly resigned in 2015. Kitzhaber is not among the former governors on Brown’s guest list for her inauguration ceremony that will be held Monday morning.

• Private matrimony, public officials: House Speaker Kotek married her longtime partner, Aimee Wilson, in a New Year’s Eve ceremony in Portland. Gov. Brown was an officiant.

As of this writing, Kotek’s office has not announced the marriage and her legislative biography has not been updated to change Wilson from partner to spouse … but Wikipedia is on the ball. Its entry about Kotek lists Wilson as her spouse.

Oregon Congressman Kurt Schrader also was married on New Year’s Eve, to Susan Mora. That is why he missed the opening of Congress this week.

An intriguing, or disturbing, fact about the 5th Congressional District is that every representative has gotten divorced while in office, including Schrader in 2011. He is among the three Democrats and two Republicans who have served the district since its creation in 1983.

• Is salt coming to an icy road near you? Rock salt is controversial in Oregon. It aids traffic safety but hurts the environment.

The Oregon Department of Transportation recently announced that it would employ rock salt on a limited basis as needed on roads throughout Oregon, while still using the traditional magnesium chloride, sand and plowing. ODOT ran pilot projects testing salt on highways bordering Idaho, Nevada and California, which salt their roads to melt ice and improve traction.

Since the winter of 2012-13, ODOT has applied salt on the first 11 miles of Interstate 5 in Oregon. Across the border, California has salted I-5 for years.

“Our goal is to match road surface conditions,” Dave Thompson of ODOT told me. “Before we used salt, you knew when you hit the border.”

If a driver coming from California were going too fast, guess what would happen upon hitting Oregon’s icy interstate.

This week, treacherous conditions closed I-5 across the California-Oregon border, creating long lines of freight trucks waiting to head north. On Wednesday afternoon, ODOT was salting I-5 on Rice Hill and along the hilly summits near Grants Pass.

“We know the road will freeze up and we would have to require chains for all the semis that have been held back while Siskiyou Pass has been closed,” Thompson said. “That traffic should hit Grants Pass about the time everything is freezing there. So we’re applying salt in those areas to keep the freezing temperatures from freezing the snow/water into ice. …

“I’m already being asked if we plan to use salt in Portland because snow and freezing rain are forecast for Saturday night. My only answer: Maybe, if conditions ‘as determined then and there’ warrant it. I certainly cannot predict that we will or won’t, ahead of time.”

If ODOT does use rock salt in the metro area, it could be a long haul. ODOT stores the salt near where it customarily has been used, which is logical but now inconvenient.

That storage shed is just across the border in Hilt, California.

Dick Hughes has been covering the Oregon political scene since 1976. Contact him at TheHughesisms@Gmail.com.