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By Jason Embry
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Pay raises approved for state workers
State workers will receive a 4 percent pay raise this September and a 3 percent raise in 2006 under a plan approved late Tuesday night by the Legislature's top budget-writers.
The raises will be the first across-the-board salary increases in four years.
To help lower-paid workers who would receive less benefit from the straight percentage raises, lawmakers guaranteed that every worker will receive at least $100 more per month this year and $50 a month more next year.
Under the plan, the average state worker, who earns $32,681, would make $1,300 more starting this fall (about $109 a month) and another $1,000 (about $84 a month) the following year.
State troopers, corrections officers, game wardens and other workers with a similar classification would receive a larger pay raise: anywhere from 9 percent to 24 percent this year, depending on their job and experience.
"It's a good night," said Gary Anderson, executive director of the 13,000-member Texas Public Employees Association.
Economist Stuart Greenfield, a retired state employee, called the action "a step in the right direction."
"At least they're making an effort to make their salaries more competitive," said Greenfield, now a part-time teacher at Texas State University who has warned about the aging of the state work force.
Greenfield, however, wonders how much of the raise will be eaten up by possible changes in state workers' benefits, such as higher insurance co-payments, that lawmakers are weighing.
The raise will cost the state $458 million over the next two years. Other highlights of the plan approved Tuesday include:
- Hazardous duty pay for such jobs as corrections officers would increase from $7 a month to $10 a month for each year of service.
- Longevity pay, which increases as workers gain experience, would increase from $20 per month for every three years on the job to $20 per month for every two years worked.
"What that guarantees is that every employee, even in the lean years, will be guaranteed to get some kind of raise every biennium," Anderson said.
Most employees of state colleges will not receive the automatic raises. Their salaries are set by the schools.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden said employees who were already guaranteed raises under other provisions of the budget, such as Child Protective Services investigators, would not be affected by the raise approved Tuesday.
The pay raise was agreed to by a 10-member legislative conference committee that is working out differences between House and Senate versions of a proposed $139 billion budget for 2006-07. The committee expects to finish its work in the coming days and have the budget approved by both chambers before the legislative session ends May 30.
The pay raises were a compromise between the plans pushed by the two chambers. The Senate had backed a 4.5 percent pay raise -- with a minimum $100 monthly increase -- each of the next two years, taking effect Jan. 1. The House had backed a 3 percent raise this fall.
"There was some concern that if we went 4 1/2 (percent raise) and 4 1/2, the future cost after the next biennium would be greater. The trade was 'OK, we'll give everybody a raise sooner,' " said Ogden, whose district includes Williamson County.
The state has about 145,000 full-time employees, about one-third of whom are in Central Texas. On average, they earn about 17 percent less than employees who perform similar jobs in municipal government or the private sector, according to a pair of state auditor's reports released last fall.
The salaries were cited as a key reason for the state's 14.8 percent turnover rate last year.
jembry@statesman.com; 445-3654
Additional material from staff writer W. Gardner Selby.