The Alaska House Finance Committee has approved a bill that would eliminate most state employees\u2019 merit raises until oil prices rise, but Juneau legislators say they don\u2019t expect the measure to advance much further.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does seem that it would have a hard time passing the House,\u201d said Juneau Democratic Rep. Sam Kito III, who predicted a \u201cbig floor fight\u201d if House Bill 379 advances to a vote of the full House.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree with that,\u201d said Rep. Cathy Mu\u00f1oz, R-Juneau, when asked about Kito\u2019s prediction.<\/p>\n
Kito, Mu\u00f1oz and Sen. Dennis Egan, D-Juneau, all said they oppose the House Rules Committee\u2019s proposal, which advanced from the finance committee in a 6-5 vote Saturday. Mu\u00f1oz was among the \u2018no\u2019 votes.<\/p>\n
As passed by the committee, the bill calls for basing state employees\u2019 annual 3.25 percent raises on the price of oil. Those raises are called merit increases, but according to figures presented to the House Finance Committee, only 5 percent of state employees fail to receive them.<\/p>\n
The bill does not address the annual cost-of-living increase typically negotiated in union contracts, and it does not address step increases due to promotions or transitions. (Several union contracts awaiting ratification contain no cost-of living increases to aid the state as it grapples with a $4 billion annual deficit.)<\/p>\n
According to the text of the legislation, the state would provide no merit increases until oil prices average at least $60 per barrel for a full year.<\/p>\n
Workers would receive a fraction of the annual 3.25 percent increase if oil prices are between $60 per barrel and $90 per barrel. Only if oil averages more than $90 per barrel would employees see a full 3.25 percent increase.<\/p>\n
According to analyses presented to the House Finance Committee, HB 379 could save the state $30 million per year.<\/p>\n
The measure does not apply to already-signed union contracts, and it will not apply to contracts in negotiation, but all future contracts will be required to abide by the revised merit scale.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis bill offers more stability for those folks that are working,\u201d said Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage and the House Majority leader. \u201cIt means less layoffs. It means less cuts to departments. It means more money in the budget to keep people employed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1oz wasn\u2019t swayed by the argument that paying people less means the state can keep more employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the problems with that bill is that it takes away the ability to recognize merit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It means taking from the deserving and undeserving alike, she explained.<\/p>\n
The bill also lacks equity, she said. Some state workers will be immediately affected; others will lose their merit increases in a few years.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, that just seems inherently unfair,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She added that re-examining the merit pay system would be worthwhile as part of longer-term study.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree that everybody has to take some kind of hit,\u201d Egan said, \u201cbut you don\u2019t screw with something that\u2019s been negotiated without tackling oil tax credits … or something that will bring some kind of new revenue to the state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Alaska House Finance Committee has approved a bill that would eliminate most state employees\u2019 merit raises until oil prices rise, but Juneau legislators say they don\u2019t expect the measure to advance much further. \u201cIt does seem that it would have a hard time passing the House,\u201d said Juneau Democratic Rep. Sam Kito III, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-28746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28746"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}