Rep. Robert Anderst’s motion for just 2 percent merit raises, plus charging state employees for part of a health insurance cost increase, has failed on a 4-14 vote.

Anderst said he wants to save money for other budget priorities, noting that the governor's budget proposal leaves only a $6 million ending balance at the end of the year. “Essentially what that would do is double the amount of money we have in reserves for economic fluctuation, which we’ve already seen happen in early months of this year, as well as other priorities that might come from the legislative body through the process of this session,” he said.

Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, countered, “There is a pretty clear statutory direction to this committee. Our role is not to consider the budget. Our role is to consider the appropriate compensation for state employees and make that recommendation to the budget committee. The budget committee then has to balance the budget, that’s their job. Our job, if you read the law, says we’re supposed to do what we can and make recommendations to the Legislature that our state employees are compensated in a fair manner.”

The four "yes" votes came from Sen. Todd Lakey and Reps. Anderst, Loertscher and Mendive.