State Workers Can Expect A Raise, Senator Says Hearings Begin Today, But Increase Probably Won’t Be As Much As Batt Wants, Cameron Predicts

A co-chairman of the special legislative committee on state employee compensation on Tuesday said state workers can expect some kind of pay increase in the 1998-1999 budget year but probably not as much as Gov. Phil Batt is likely to propose.

State Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, whose panel begins hearings today, refused to predict what recommendation will be made to the full Legislature later this month, especially before Batt unveils his next week.

After lawmakers refused to finance Batt’s modest 2 percent pay raise in the current budget, the governor made a pay increase his top budget priority for the next one, suggesting he will propose something in the neighborhood of 5 percent.

But Cameron indicated that might be excessive, even though the vast majority of workers got no permanent pay raise this year.

“It’s possible,” said Cameron, who is also vice chairman of the budget committee. “I’m not sure it’s probable.”

“We’re responsible for setting a budget, making it responsible so that we don’t have to come back in future years with tax increases,” he said. “I would guess state employees would get at least 2 percent.”

The state Personnel Commission recommended an increase of more than 6 percent, based on a survey of what workers in comparable jobs are being paid elsewhere.

Each percentage-point increase costs about $4.1 million in general tax money. Based on current economic assumptions, analysts have indicated a 5 percent increase could be accommodated in the budget for the year that begins July 1.

To reinforce the more fiscally conservative view he and other lawmakers appear to be taking, Cameron and Rep. Bob Schaefer, R-Nampa, released a new survey they said showed that state agencies gave some kind of pay hike or bonus from the existing budgets to the vast majority of their employees. And Cameron said that fact will play into the decision lawmakers make.

“There has been a sentiment that most employees did not get a pay raise this year,” Cameron said. “We’re finding that is not correct. … I think most state employees were relatively happy.”

The survey of agencies employing nearly 16,400 people found that all but one - the Lava Hot Springs Foundation with 10 workers - managed to scrape together cash to give at least some on their staffs extra money to help cover increased paycheck deductions for health insurance that took effect in July.

But it showed that at least 10,700 of those workers - and probably thousands more - received nothing more than one-time bonuses if they got anything at all.

The survey also showed the extreme disparity in the way individual agencies handled the directive to do what each could to make up for last winter’s legislative decision to stiff the state payroll on the cash needed to underwrite a uniform pay increase.

Schaefer conceded the result has been a mess that should forestall any similar budget decision in the future.

“It’s possible to learn from a mistake, and it was a mistake what we did,” he said.

The Public Employee Retirement System board helped ease the pay problem last fall when it decided to reduce employee contributions to the pension fund by 1.2 percent. In the case of workers earning $30,000 a year, that is pumping an extra $360 into their pockets through this coming fall.