Cost-cutting legislators in the Alaska House of Representatives are advancing with a proposal to eliminate automatic salary increases for state employees until oil tops $90 per barrel.<\/p>\n
House Bill 379 was introduced by Rep. Craig Johnson, R-Anchorage and chairman of the House Rules Committee, on the 91st day of the legislative session. It received its first hearing in the House Finance Committee on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuite frankly, it makes no sense to give out raises to state employees in this budget crisis while the private sector is looking at layoffs and scaling down,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Johnson and Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage and the House Majority Leader, told members of the finance committee that the measure \u2014 expected to save $70 million to $75 million per year, according to initial estimates \u2014 is about preserving jobs.<\/p>\n
The state can afford to keep more people on staff if they aren\u2019t paid as much.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand workforce morale, but isn\u2019t it better to have a job than no job?\u201d Millett asked rhetorically.<\/p>\n
Under the state\u2019s pay system, most employees receive 3.5 percent annual \u201cmerit increases\u201d in their first six years. Those increases come automatically unless a supervisor pre-emptively blocks them.<\/p>\n
Those increases are separate from step increases if an employee is promoted.<\/p>\n
\u201cPublic employees have it easy,\u201d said Kelsi Pulczinski, a political science major at the University of Alaska Anchorage and one of a number of Americans for Prosperity supporters who called to offer public testimony Monday.<\/p>\n
As presented to the finance committee, the measure would not affect contracts already in place, only contracts that have not yet been ratified or are still in negotiations.<\/p>\n
According to a report Monday by the Alaska Journal of Commerce, the state is in contract negotiations with unions representing the vast majority of the state\u2019s 16,600 or so executive branch employees.<\/p>\n
Jeremy Price, state director of Americans for Prosperity, called HB 379 \u201ca great piece of legislation. Freezing automatic pay increases is the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of AFP, he added, \u201cwe are also confident that a lot of (state employees) won\u2019t mind pitching in\u201d to solve the state\u2019s $4.1 billion deficit.<\/p>\n
As reported by the Journal of Commerce, most of the state\u2019s unions are negotiating contracts that forego annual cost-of-living adjustments. If merit increases also go away, most state employees would see no change in their salary for the next three years.<\/p>\n
Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, pointed out that the effects of HB 379 could last much longer than that. The bill calls for freezing merit increases until oil tops $90 per barrel for a full fiscal year.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s recently released spring revenue forecast doesn\u2019t see oil at that level in the next decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t you think you\u2019re going to have a lot of bitter employees?\u201d Gara asked Millett and Johnson.<\/p>\n
Jim Duncan, executive director of the Alaska State Employees Association, said HB 379 is changing \u201cthe rules of the game after the game is over.\u201d<\/p>\n
ASEA had been negotiating a three-year contract with the state that provided no cost-of-living increases for the next three years \u2014 a recognition of the state\u2019s fiscal situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has never been approached,\u201d he said of the possibility that merit increases will go away.<\/p>\n
Vince Beltrami, president of the Alaska AFL-CIO, referenced comments made earlier this week by Rep. Steve Thompson, R-Fairbanks and co-chairman of the House Finance Committee.<\/p>\n
Thompson said that he didn\u2019t believe HB 379 would move from committee and that it was simply a bargaining chip in the end-of-session budgeting process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s an insult to treat Alaska state employees as bargaining chips,\u201d Beltrami said.<\/p>\n
If HB 379 was intended as a bargaining chip, there are signs that it\u2019s beginning to become more than that. Thompson asked committee members to submit amendments to the bill by 5 p.m. Thursday.<\/p>\n
Amending a bill is one of the last steps before moving it from committee. If approved by the House Finance Committee, HB 379 would be subject to a vote of the entire House, then advance to the Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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