State workers want pay raises
HARRISBURG – “What about me?” has been the question among disgruntled state workers and other public officials in reaction to the double-digit pay hike lawmakers recently gave themselves and others at the top. State union employees, who have seen two years of pay freezes recently and a gradual shifting of health costs onto them, say they’ve swallowed the changes so that government leaders could balance tight state budgets.
But this year’s modest 3 percent raise in salaries this July has become bittersweet, when compared to the 16 to 34 percent pay hikes that lawmakers, with the support of Gov. Ed Rendell, gave themselves. The governor, judges and top Cabinet officials also received significant pay hikes (although the governor has said he won’t accept his).
“It’s OK for them to push us off for years and years and years, and always give themselves the big bucks,” said one sarcastic worker, who answers complaint calls for one of the state agencies.
She was smoking outside a building in the Capitol complex.
“People are hurt because they’re losing things,” said an administrative officer. “Overall, I think state employees do get treated decently. But when I started 33 years ago, I thought I would retire with the same things I started with at the beginning. But over time, we’re losing, losing, losing.”
“When they’re rewarding themselves, we hope they would put it back in the envelope so we can attract qualified people,” said Chuck Benhayon, a Bucks County constable who’s pushing a bill that would raise constable fees for the first time in 13 years.
State money doesn’t pay for constables, who work out of district courts delivering warrants, civil papers and sometimes making arrests and transporting defendants. Rather, state lawmakers set the fees they receive for services, which are then paid in large part by charges placed on plaintiffs and defendants. Constables cover their own costs for firearms, equipment and uniforms.
State Rep. Patrick Fleagle (R-Franklin), who introduced the constable bill, said he thinks lawmakers and constables both deserve a raise, and state employees should be adequately paid, too. He noted that the recent raise was lawmakers’ first other than annual cost-of-living increases in a decade.
But it’s no surprise that a legislative pay raise would result in other public workers wanting one, as well, he said.
“I came from a very solid background in private industry, and it’s no different there: When one person gets a pay raise, others expect to be compensated, too,” he said. “It’s a question of fairness.”
The base salary for lawmakers has gone up 16 percent, or $11,403, bringing the total to $81,050.
Anyone in leadership positions – about half of all lawmakers – get additional increases of $4,052 for vice chairs of committees to as high as $36,830 extra for the House speaker and Senate President pro tempore.
Details on which lawmakers have officially signed up for “unvouchered expenses,” which allow them to accept the equivalent of a raise immediately without waiting for the start of the next session in December 2006, have not yet been made available to the public.
The spokesman for House Majority Leader Sam Smith (R-Jefferson) questioned the attention paid to legislators’ pay raises when the salary hikes also applied to Cabinet officials, the governor and judges. And it’s Gov. Ed Rendell, and not lawmakers, who’s responsible for negotiating union salaries, said Smith spokesman Steve Miskin.
“The grumbling is natural, but it doesn’t make it right,” said Miskin. “It was nobody else except for Rendell who froze their salaries. He rejoiced in doing it.”
Rendell spokeswoman Kate Philips said the economy slowed down the state’s ability to afford pay increases to its 85,000 state workers.
And she noted that AFSCME Council 13, the largest state workers’ union, will see pay jumps of 2.25 to 3.05 percent until the contract runs out in 2007.
“The governor came into office with a $2.3 billion budget deficit. We all tightened our belts the first few years because it was rough,” Philips said. “But as our economy turned around, we were able to accommodate a pay increase. …If the economy can bear it, the governor certainly supports state workers’ (pay) being increased for their work.”
Pennsylvania now has the second-highest paid Legislature in the nation, behind only California (although it’s one of only four states in which lawmakers work full-time).
And that’s where AFSCME Executive Director David Fillman is rubbed the wrong way.
“What state employees get should also be second in the nation,” he said. “We feel that the sacrifices we made back in [the 2003 contract] … helped get the surplus that made it possible for the Legislature to give themselves this incredibly high raise.”
He said hospitalization and prescription drug co-pays have gone up for AFSCME’s 42,000 state workers, and the state has implemented hiring freezes and made 10 to 15 percent cuts to departments.
This year ushered in an initiative that designates one-half of 1 percent of state workers’ salaries toward their health care, although the plan includes an exemption for workers who fill out a form that reveals details about their medical history. (A number have refused to fill out the form because of privacy concerns.)
The makeup of benefit cuts were determined by the Pennsylvania Employee Benefit Trust Fund, controlled by a board composed of unions and the governor’s appointees.
By comparison, lawmakers have no medical co-pays and they contribute none of their salaries for health benefits, according to information provided by House and Senate administrative offices.
Fillman issued a warning about the next upcoming round of contract negotiations in 2007: “We will not forget this.”
Alison Hawkes can be reached at 717-705-6330 or ahawkes@calkins-media.com.