A measure that would ask voters to give South Dakota lawmakers a significant pay raise cleared its first legislative hurdle Wednesday.

The House State Affairs Committee voted 9-3 to advance the resolution to the chamber's floor. The proposal would put the change before voters this year as a constitutional amendment.

South Dakota lawmakers currently set their own salaries and are paid $6,000 per session plus a per diem allowance. Top lawmakers are sponsoring the measure that would set legislators' salaries at one-fifth of the South Dakota median income. That would amount to a 70 percent raise for the state's 105 lawmakers, to nearly $10,200 per session, according to U.S. Census numbers for 2015. Based on that figure, it would cost taxpayers about $440,000.

The bill's backers say low pay limits the pool of people who can serve as legislators. House Speaker Mark Mickelson, a supporter, said the proposal would tie lawmakers' salaries to the economic prospects of the people they represent.

"I think it's time that we do move forward on this," said Mickelson, a Republican. "You're not setting your pay if you choose to vote for this. You're asking the people to set your pay."

Nobody in the audience spoke out against the plan. But Republican Rep. David Lust said lawmakers should just make the decision themselves instead of leaving it to voters because lawmakers can easily justify why they deserve a raise.

Lust cast doubt on the constitutional amendment's chances with the voters.

"This is going to become a referendum on politics in general," he said. "It's going to get beaten badly at the ballot, and that will have set the cause back to raise salaries immensely because no legislator in the next ten years after this fails is going to want to touch that thing because the people will have spoken."

A state Legislative Research Council document says that legislators haven't had a salary increase since 1998, although their per diem payments have risen.