AUGUSTA – Maine’s next governor would receive a 76 percent pay hike if a bill Gov. Angus King’s administration will submit to the Legislature next year were enacted.

The bill would raise the governor’s annual salary from the current $70,000 to $123,500 and would become effective in January 2003. King would not benefit because he is prohibited from returning as governor for a third term.

Such a salary hike would take Maine’s governor from being one of the lowest-paid in the nation to one of the best paid.

The bill is sure to be controversial in the Legislature. Still, supporters say the salary increase is overdue because the pay hasn’t increased since 1987, when it doubled from $35,000 to $70,000 a year.

Only Arkansas and Nebraska pay their governors less than Maine, according to the Council of State Governments. If Maine raises the governor’s salary to $123,500 and other states stay at current levels, Maine would rise to ninth place nationally and second place in New England, behind Massachusetts.

The initial reaction from lawmakers was mixed.

“His Cabinet makes more than he does,” House Minority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Raymond, said of King. Nearly 300 people in state government make more than $70,000 a year, including every member of King’s Cabinet, most of whom are paid more than $91,000 a year.

“If you are going to pay people according to the responsibilities of the job, $123,500 is in line” for the governor, Bruno said.

Others were skeptical.

Senate Republican leader Mary Small, R-Bath, said the current salary isn’t resulting in a “a dearth of candidates” for governor.

“It seems to me that there are going to be a lot of higher priorities than that,” Small said.

In addition to the $70,000 salary, Maine’s governor gets benefits that include living in the state-owned Blaine House in Augusta, a state-leased car, a state police security detail whose members also serve as drivers for the governor, and a $30,000 expense account that comes with no strings attached.

King and his family have not lived in the Blaine House, instead choosing to live in their Brunswick home since he took office in January 1995.

A millionaire, King has put his expense account money into the operating budget of the Governor’s Office.