In the final days of the legislative session, Democrats should not rush through an overhaul of the way Colorado pays its state workers. However well-intentioned, House Bill 1409 is unworkable and potentially dangerous to future state budgets.
The bill, meant to rearrange how salary increases are meted out, already has passed the House, but it needs to be killed in the Senate.
For one thing, as the bill acknowledges, there won’t be enough new money in state coffers for at least the next two years to pay any new salaries increases, so lawmakers have plenty of time to work on this issue.
For another, when revenues do return, lawmakers must have flexibility in how they spend the money, such as beginning to restore K-12 funding, rather than be locked into bumping salaries first.
Plus, the state is in the middle of studying the pay structure, and a report won’t be ready until this fall. Why jump ahead of that process?
Well, Democrats might be concerned they’re going to have less influence at the statehouse after this fall’s election. We’re guessing that’s why they’re also, at the last minute, trying to codify part of Gov. Bill Ritter’s executive order on unions into law. They want to ensure that unions can collect dues from state workers, even if the next governor isn’t pro-union.
We see no reason to cement that into law. Neither do we see the need to rush to approve House Bill 1409, which does seek to fix a nagging problem: Because of continuing revenue shortfalls, state workers are stuck in their current pay grades, and many are mired in the bottom levels of their job classifications.
But the proposed fix creates new problems. The legislature’s nonpartisan analysts note that HB 1409 appears to conflict with the Colorado Constitution and federal laws requiring equal protection of workers.
Presently, state workers qualify for annual salary increases and career advancement based on a combination of job performance and comparable salaries of private-sector workers and equivalent jobs in other regions.
But due to the lack of money the past two years, those increases haven’t happened.
The bill, backed by the state’s largest labor union representing state workers, Colorado WINS, and by the Association of Colorado State Patrol Professionals, would accelerate a worker’s advancement up the pay scale. The Legislative Council notes that because the bill ties an employee’s salary increase to the date of hire, rather than the start of the employee’s current position, “an employee could reach maximum salary after 12 years of employment, requiring compensation at the top of each and every pay range for any position he or she subsequently occupies.”
The bill also would require that any money available for salary increases go to those employees hired after Jan. 1, 2001, first, even if those hired earlier were excluded.
Rich Gonzales, executive director of the personnel department, tells us his staff has been conducting town- hall meetings with state workers over the past eight months as they study the wage-range problem.
But a study of the situation isn’t complete. He hopes to present his findings to lawmakers on Aug. 1.
Given the high number of state workers, lawmakers should let Gonzales finish his work and take up the issue next session.
