In brief: Panel backs raises for public workers

Idaho’s 19,000 public employees would receive pay raises totaling about $30.6 million, under a plan recommended Tuesday by a panel of state lawmakers.

The compensation committee – 10 Republicans and two Democrats – said the money should be paid to workers based on merit, to help lift wages to more closely resemble those in the private sector, and to keep state workers from seeking better-paying jobs elsewhere. The spending for raises in the fiscal year that begins July 1 would be 5 percent higher than this year.

Legislative budget writers are expected to approve the panel’s 2008 pay package, which also calls for Idaho to use part of a $75 million insurance reserve to cover at least some of an expected increase in the cost of state employee benefits.

Judie Wright, acting director of the Division of Human Resources, said it would be the biggest wage increase since 2001 for Idaho’s public workers. Gov. Butch Otter had recommended a 5 percent increase; Wright’s agency had wanted 5.8 percent.

According to Wright’s agency, state employee pay trails the market by 15.6 percent.

Lawmaker seeks Soma restrictions

State lawmakers are again considering restricting a prescription muscle relaxant that some legislators say has a potential for abuse.

Known by the brand name Soma, the drug carisoprodol is not regulated as a Schedule IV drug in Idaho. But Rep. Robert Ring, R-Caldwell and a doctor, said the body turns carisoprodol into meprobamate – a Schedule IV drug – and needs to be regulated.

Schedule IV drugs require a doctor’s permission for more than five refills or after more than six months.

Ring’s similar proposal last year stalled in a Senate committee following lobbying by the drug’s manufacturer, Medpointe Pharmaceuticals of Somerset, N.J. Skip Smyser, a former state senator, represents the firm.

From staff and wire reports