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State Workers
Thursday, March 7, 2002
Senate panel OKs worker pay freeze Employee health care costs rise less under Democrats' revised plan BRAD SHANNON AND PATRICK CONDON, THE OLYMPIAN Originally published Thursday, March 7, 2002
OLYMPIA -- A state Senate committee voted to freeze state employee pay late Wednesday, using some of the saved money to blunt the increase in health care premiums facing state workers.
The move by Senate Democrats, which came just two days after they had proposed a 1.5 percent pay raise, caught labor leaders by surprise.
"I have no idea what is going on. We didn't see this coming at all," said Greg Devereux, executive director for the 19,000 member Washington Federation of State Employees. Only a portion of the $31.5 million previously earmarked for pay will go to reducing state workers' share of medical costs, Devereux said.
"One minute we had $31.5 million; the next minute we had $12.5 million. I don't understand it," he said.
But Sen. Lisa Brown, the Spokane Democrat who authored the budget changes, said it actually will help low- and moderate-income state workers by ensuring their health care premiums rise from $27 to $62 per month, not the $105 previously proposed. Such a level would have outstripped pay increases and were "too much to bear," Brown said.
"The lowest-paid employees were going to get a serious net reduction" in pay once medical costs were deducted, said Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Thurston County, who supported the shift. "I think it is a reasonable alternative in a long list of bad choices."
Sen. Dino Rossi, R-Sammamish, the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, said he agreed with holding down the pay but objected to turning around and spending the savings.
Some of the savings from freezing pay will be spent on child care for low-income families, whose allocation was cut recently by Gov. Gary Locke's administrative order. Some of it also will be used to keep mileage reimbursements for state workers at 34 cents per mile, rather than cut it to 25 cents as previously proposed, Brown said.
Initiative 732 effects
The freeze on pay, which would not affect public school employees protected by Initiative 732's cost-of-living guarantee, came as the Senate Ways and Means Committee approved a $22.46 billion spending plan on a party-line vote. The controversial budget proposal aims to bridge a $1.6 billion state budget gap and could be voted on by the full Senate as soon as Friday.
Because a House Democratic budget released Wednesday called for 2 percent pay raises for state workers, Devereux said he was holding out hope that state workers -- who number almost 25,000 in Thurston County -- could still get a salary increase.
By contrast, teachers and some community college workers will get raises of 3.6 percent under terms of I-732.
Brown said she thinks lawmakers should consider amending I-732, delaying the pay guarantees, so that some level of pay raise could be given to state workers.
"If we could amend the initiative, we could do equity there," Brown said, expressing support for a proposal by Republican Sen. Dan Swecker of Rochester. "The House has clearly said they aren't going there."
Health care costs
Under the revised Senate proposal, state workers' share of health premiums would not rise as high -- hitting an average 12.6 percent of actual premium costs. That would be more than the 8.4 percent that workers pay on average today, but far less than the original 19.7 percent proposal.
The Senate also would raise office visit co-payments to $15.
On the Web:
- Senate Ways & Means: 2002 Supplemental Budget Proposals
- Senate Ways & Means Fiscal Updates 2002
- Washington State Legislature
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