Committee accepts corrected CEC letter: $1.55-per-hour pay recommendation clarified; IT/engineering increase described as additional

Frances Lippitt, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, presented a corrected Committee on Employee Compensation (CEC) recommendation letter to the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee on Monday and explained two text changes the committee had asked to be made.

Lippitt told the committee the letter had not accurately reflected last week's committee action in two ways: the committee's recommendation was to fund a dollar 55 per hour per full-time position (FTP) salary increase and the original draft had included flexibility language the committee's motion did not pass. "The motion in committee that passed did not include that flexibility language, so that's 1 correction," she said. Lippitt also said the committee's action to recommend a 4.5% market-based increase for IT and engineering employees is intended to be in addition to the $1.55-per-hour-per-FTP increase.

After the presentation the committee moved by unanimous consent to accept the corrected letter. The chair asked for objections; none were raised and the correction was ordered into the record.

The committee also discussed whether the IT and engineering market-based increase applies solely to employees on the IT and engineering salary schedule or whether non-classified IT and engineering employees (for example, some staff serving constitutional officers) should be included. Lippitt said the motion that passed applied to employees in the IT and engineering salary schedule and that the question of whether to expand the increase to non-classified staff is one the committee may consider further.

Provenance: Excerpts of Lippitt's presentation and the unanimous-consent action appear in the hearing transcript.

Ending: The corrected letter will be the version the committee uses in ongoing budget deliberations unless the committee later amends it.