There was a flurry of news and commentary a week ago when the current Commission on Salaries made its recommendations for pay increases for legislators, judges, and state officials.

“Big Pay Raises Coming For Lawmakers And Top State Execs” was the first story that appeared in Civil Beat. Later, CB reporter Chad Blair wondered, “Are Hawaii legislators paid too much?”

Hawaii News Now joined Civil Beat in publishing several pages containing tables with the salary recommendations.

So here’s my question: Where is the report of the Commission on Salaries?

Each of the two prior commissions issued reports that presented the reasoning behind their salary recommendations. You can find their reports online: One was presented to the Legislature in 2013, while the prior commission reported in 2007.

The Department of Human Resources Development website includes a link to the Commission on Salaries, which in turn has links to meeting notices and minutes of the current commission. According to the minutes, the commission’s final report was approved and signed on March 13.

By law, it is supposed to be transmitted to the legislature via the governor.

The capitol website maintains a list of Reports Submitted to the Legislature. The salary commission report isn’t there. Then I checked Governor’s Messages, often used to convey documents from the governor to the legislature. It’s not there either.

So when will the commission’s 2019 report become available to the public? It’s hard to evaluate whether the proposals are reasonable or not without access to the commission’s reasoning and supporting documents such as those contained in prior reports.

Just wondering.