How do last week’s heroes turn into this week’s zeros?

After two weeks of weather delays, on Thursday Gov. Pat McCrory unveiled his spending plan for the next biennium, with $21.5 billion in spending in the 2015-16 fiscal year. The proposal did not contain an across-the-board pay increase for all state employees, instead opting for raises to certain groups. It also contained no cost-of-living adjustment for retirees.

It is SEANC’s goal to improve these numbers as the budget process continues in the General Assembly. In order to make that goal a reality, members must make their voice heard by contacting their lawmakers.

The administration rationalized their piecemeal approach to funding pay raises as money “better spent in hard to fill positions. Targeted [pay raises] is better-than-across the board to attract, retain and motivate state employees.”

Lawmakers need to be reminded that just last week while others slept in their warm beds and played in the snow, state employees worked around the clock. State employees were heroes during wintry weather—the Department of Transportation cleared snow off roads in dangerous, icy conditions, State Highway Patrol officers helped citizens in thousands of accidents and emergency management personnel manned the state operations center and kept the public informed as winter storms moved through the area.

While the storm was wreaking havoc across the Old North State, it was business as usual for front-line state employees who make North Carolina work. State employees were helping patients recover from mental illness and substance abuse at health and human services facilities such as Broughton Hospital. Prisons continued to operate and the public was kept safe from dangerous felons at Central Prison, Polk and Alexander prisons to name but a few.

This snow storm is a reminder that it is important to invest in public services and the people who provide them. They all deserve a pay raise that demonstrates dedication, respect and a recognition that the cost of living is increasing not just for a selected few, but for everybody. What happened that last week’s heroes could translate into this week’s budget zeros?

McCrory’s recommendations include the following provisions:

• Pay
• State Highway Patrol Troopers-who are not at the top of their pay range, a 5% step increase in each year of the biennium.
• Correctional Officers-Reclassifies 10,000 correctional officers with new pay levels dependent on different job duties and risks associated with higher-security prisons. Proposes $20.79 million in 2016-2017.
• Salary and Market-Based Pay Adjustment Fund-To adjust salaries where employee pay is below market level and where the state is having difficulty recruiting and retaining employees. Proposes $10 million in 2015-2016 and $72 million in 2016-2017.

• Jobs
  • Adds 66 positions to fully staff mental health beds at Central Prison Health Care Facility.
  • State parks, the N.C. Zoo, aquariums, Natural Science museum employees transfer from DENR to Cultural Resources.
• Health Care
  • Fully funds the State Health Plan for active and retired employees to reflect 2016 changes. Proposal funds SHP at $34 million in 2015-2016 and $101,867,946 in 2016-2017.
• Retirement
  • Fully funds the retirement system. However, the proposal takes away $33.5 million that could have been used for retiree COLAs.

Now is the time to contact your lawmakers.  This is not the final budget; it is the beginning of the budget process. Make your voice heard on the need for all state employees to receive a pay raise and all retirees to receive a cost-of-living increase. Together, we will work to increase your pay and benefits in the General Assembly, but we need all hands on deck—starting now.

It is now the House’s turn to craft its budget proposal before it begins work with the Senate to hammer out any differences of opinion. As usual, lawmakers say they would like to have a spending plan finalized by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

 

Other bills SEANC is watching

Among the other pieces of proposed legislation being followed closely by SEANC are bills impacting Department of Transportation jobs and retiree health coverage.

SB20 was passed by the Senate but was amended by Rep. Paul Stam (R-Wake) in the House Finance Committee before being passed by the House. This bill, which seeks to stabilize the gas tax by reducing it in the short-term, but raising it in the long, will result in a $33 million loss to the state budget. In its original form, it would have required that deficit be paid for by cutting 500 filled and 50 vacant full-time positions from the Department of Transportation – a reduction of about 4 percent – by Sept. 1. However, Stam’s amendment takes that mandatory cut off the table. According to WRAL when he presented his amendment, he said, “I just can’t imagine that those 500 people are just sitting there and twiddling their thumbs.”

This is a bill that SEANC has spoken out against to News & Observer, urging the General Assembly to “untie these positions from the gas tax,” explaining that privatizing vital public services such as pavement preservation, winter weather treatments, roadside environmental activities and preconstruction will end up costing taxpayers more and that state employees always provide the best value. Others, including McCrory and DOT Secretary Tony Tata, have also voiced concern about the mandatory cuts. The two bills will have to be reconciled in conference committee.

Another bill, SB6, would affect retirees who return to work for the state in temporary positions. It would allow them to retain full coverage options under the state health plan, rather than pushing them into new high-deductible plans. SEANC health care experts are examining this bill and whether or not it is a good deal for retirees, but one of our concerns late last year was for the state retirees who had returned in temporary positions and were being forced onto those high-deductible plans. This is a particularly important issue for school systems, and in order to avoid having their health coverage adversely impacted, many retirees were cutting back on their hours or were leaving their temporary positions entirely. This bill, which has a House companion (HB56), also is in a Senate committee.

 

Talk to your legislators

This year is the General Assembly’s long session. Lawmakers must set a new two-year budget, a process that started this week with Gov. McCrory’s proposal and will include proposals from both the House, which will present its proposal next, and then the Senate. In the end, legislators will come together to iron out differences between their plans and send the governor a budget to sign. Since a veto is unlikely from McCrory, most of the power over the budget rests with the General Assembly.

The goal is to complete this budget dance by July 1 when the new fiscal year starts. That means there is plenty of opportunity for you to come sit down with your state senators and representatives and help them put a face to state employees, SEANC and their constituents.

Not sure who your legislators are? Click here.  Curious whether they were endorsed by EMPAC? Click here. Want to make note of SEANC’s legislative priorities before talking to then? Click here.

SEANC staff can also help you schedule meetings with your lawmakers and make sure you have the most up-to-date information possible about SEANC’s legislative priorities, so you can have a good and productive conversation. All you have to do is let us know you’re coming. Just email tbooe@seanc.org or call 800-222-2758 or 919-810-0272.

Can’t make it to Raleigh? No problem. You can call, write or email your legislators – or even schedule your own time to meet with them in your hometown. Again, you can find your lawmakers and their contact information here.