Legislators blasting Gov. Mark Dayton’s proposed salary increases for his cabinet heads and trying to stoke public outrage aren’t telling the whole story to taxpayers.

The feud climaxed last week in a Senate vote to block the pay raises until July 1, a move initiated by Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, that has damaged the close relationship he had with the governor.

Even Bakk acknowledged this week that the salary increases might be justified, but suggested it would be wiser to increase them incrementally as smaller raises over time.

There’s merit to that suggestion, but legislators should have thought of that when they gave Dayton the authority to increase the salaries of commissioners two years ago. At the time, legislators were clearly signaling that raises were justified—they just didn’t want to take the political heat for approving them.

They left that to the governor, and when he took the appropriate action, they opted to score political points at the governor’s expense. It’s easy to understand why he feels betrayed.

While the governor expressed the most outrage at Sen. Bakk last week, it’s Republicans who have been toughest on the governor— and the most hypocritical on the entire subject.

Republican Roz Peterson, the GOP House’s spokesperson on the issue, served on the Lakeville School Board where she approved significant salary increases and up to $7,000 in annual bonuses for top school officials. As a result, the Lakeville superintendent will earn about $187,000 a year by 2017 — over $30,000 more than Dayton’s top-paid commissioners if the pay increases he announced remain in effect.

And Republicans in the House said nothing when the director of their caucus, Ben Golnik, received a $16,171 raise to make nearly $124,000 annually. The Chief House Clerk Patrick Duffy Murphy now makes $148,000, thanks to a $24,000 raise.

Peterson defended the pay raises for Lakeville school officials, saying the district had to align its salary closer to what was being offered in the private sector for similar jobs to attract and retain top candidates for positions.

Gov. Dayton has made exactly that argument in a letter to legislators explaining the pay increases for commissioners, but Peterson conveniently ignores the point when made by the governor. It’s hard to take her seriously under the circumstances.

Politics aside, both Peterson and Dayton make a valid argument about the need to attract quality candidates for top administrative positions. And the 15-year pay freeze for major department heads in Minnesota has left the state woefully behind both the private sector and neighboring states when it comes to salaries for similar positions.

A recent comparison found that the current salaries of four department heads, education, health, transportation and agriculture, were below most of the salaries the same heads received in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and North Dakota.

All four of those department heads in Minnesota currently earn $119,500.

By comparison, the salary for the education commissioner ranges from $110,192 in North Dakota to $203,445 in Illinois. The pay increase proposed for that position in Minnesota would increase the education commissioner’s salary to $150,002, about the middle of the pack in Midwest states but still below the salaries of many superintendents of Minnesota school districts.

And it’s not just superintendents drawing salaries well above state commissioners. St. Louis County’s administrator, for example, makes well over $150,000 a year, and that’s hardly unusual among top county and city administrators in Minnesota. St. Louis County could certainly pay less, but not if they want to attract the caliber of candidates the county needs. Just try to convince St. Louis County commissioners to cut their administrator’s pay to $119,000 a year, equal to the pay of major department heads in state government. They wouldn’t do it, because they’re well aware of the consequences.

We can’t pretend that state government is any different. If we want quality administration, we have to pay for it. The governor knows it. Legislators know it. It’s time they stop playing politics over it.