Committee staff outline statewide decisions: health benefits, CEC options and contract inflation ahead of votes

Keith Bybee, Division Manager of Budget Policy Analysis for the Legislative Services Office, and other staff reviewed the statewide decision packet and a schedule for committee action on compensation and benefits.

Bybee told members the packet includes multiple votes the committee will take later in the week, including general fund revenue assumptions, personnel benefit cost adjustments (notably for health insurance), contract inflation, statewide cost allocation and change in employee compensation (CEC). He said the governor’s recommendations and alternate options from the CEC committee are presented side by side for the panel’s Thursday votes.

Bybee summarized the two CEC approaches included in the packet. The governor’s recommendation would provide an amount the presentation described as a 5% or equivalent dollar increase (a combined set of merit and schedule shifts) with a statewide estimated cost of roughly $179.7 million. The Compensation and Employee Compensation (CEC) committee’s recommendation in the packet — funded at a dollar 1.55 per eligible employee in the materials provided to the Joint Finance committee — produced a slightly lower statewide estimate in the current calculation, about $174.7 million. Bybee cautioned that some small adjustments were still being finalized in the database and that committee materials may be updated before formal votes.

Division of Financial Management administrator Laurie Wolf told the panel that actuarial work underpins health insurance estimates and cautioned against funding at the absolute minimum actuarial level. Wolf said funding at the lower figure would put reserves at risk and could require a larger per‑employee jump the following year to restore reserves. She said staff would provide the committee with more detailed reserve and actuarial materials.

Senators and representatives asked staff to provide additional breakdowns — including the agency‑level impact of the CEC options and contractor versus employee cost comparisons for IT needs discussed earlier in the hearing — before the committee resolves statewide decisions later in the week.

Ending: Staff scheduled votes later in the week on revenue assumptions, benefits, CEC and other statewide items and agreed to supply additional actuarial and agency‑level analysis for committee members to review prior to voting.