House panel kills bill to zero-fund state employee raises, endorses JFAC plan

The House Commerce & Human Resources Committee voted this afternoon to kill HCR 41, which would have zero-funded state employee raises next year, and passed HCR 40, setting raises at 2 percent; the committee voted to send the measure to the House’s amending order for amendments to alter the wording to give 2 percent raises to all performing state employees, matching the plan already approved by the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee last week.

Rep. Stephen Hartgen, R-Twin Falls. who drafted the two measures and co-sponsored them with all four members of House GOP leadership, said, “The end result was that it mirrors JFAC. … I’m fully in support of that. … We got good discussion from the members. It was exactly what you want a policy committee to do.”

Four state employees or state employee representatives testified to the committee, all supporting the change to HCR 40 to remove a clause making the 2 percent boost a merit-based raise that would vary. Hartgen said, “I got quite a few emails on this topic.”