State Employees Could See A One Time Bonus

BOISE, Id – State of Idaho employees have seen pay cuts, furloughs, even layoffs over the past few years. That’s as the state has cut budgets back during the economic downturn.   Since fiscal year 2008, the state workforce has shrunk by more than 19-hundred employees. Idaho Governor Butch Otter said today that the employees who are left, have had to do more with less.

Butch Otter  “We can seek to more equitably reward our most valued State employees for continuing in public service. To that end, I’m proposing that we set aside $41 million from the General Fund in Fiscal 2013 to reward our most deserving employees, including our public school teachers.”

The three percent raise would be merit-based.  Otter explained in his State of the State speech that state employees haven’t had a raise since fiscal year 2009.  It would cost the state 41-million dollars.  26-million of that would to go to public school teachers.   However, Otter said the raise would only happen, if the state could afford it.

Butch Otter  “But that reward should be structured in such a way that it gives management as much flexibility as possible. It also should be in the form of one-time payments, and it should be conditioned on tax revenues meeting our projections.”

The raise would have two triggers.  Half the raise would be distributed to employees, like a bonus, if the state meets its revenue target in July. The second half would be handed out if the state meets targets again in January 2014.

Otter also wants to fund next year’s increase in employee health insurance costs.  That would cost the General Fund more than 12 million dollars.

Copyright 2012 BSPR