JFAC accepts technical corrections to CEC recommendation on state pay

The Joint Finance and Appropriation Committee on Monday accepted technical revisions to a letter from the Committee on Employee Compensation, correcting how the committee's previous actions were described.

Frances Lippett, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told the committee that the committee's motion "was to fund a salary increase for state employees of a dollar 55 per hour per FTP" and that the previous draft of the letter had incorrectly included flexibility language that the committee did not pass. Lippett also told members the committee had intended that "a 4 and a half percent market based increase for IT and engineering employees is in addition to that dollar 55 per hour per FTP."

The clarification came during the committee's review of the CEC recommendation letter. After Lippett presented the corrected language, a committee member asked for unanimous consent to accept the technical revisions. The chair asked whether there was an objection; having received none, she ordered the corrected letter accepted by unanimous consent.

The committee discussed the scope of the IT and engineering market adjustment. Representative Petzke asked whether the 4.5% applied to IT and engineering staff across all agencies or only to specific offices. Lippett replied that the motion passed by the committee applied to employees on the IT and engineering salary schedule and observed that the increase would not automatically apply to nonclassified IT and engineering employees, such as those working for constitutional officers, unless the committee chose to expand it.

The committee did not take a separate roll-call vote on the revised language after the unanimous-consent request.

The accepted corrections will be reflected in the CEC letter transmitted by Legislative Services Office to the committee record and used in drafting the committee's recommendation documents.