GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.—State statistics show Colorado paid nearly $60 million to departing workers for unused leave and sick time over the past three years and could owe $367 million more to current employees.
State workers are allowed to accrue up to 696 hours in unused leave and sick time, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported Sunday ( ). The newspaper said the dollar totals came from its analysis of expenditures reported by the State Controller’s Office.
“Taxpayers are going to choke on that,” Rep. Laura Bradford, R-Collbran said.
Bradford said her own research found that a single state worker who retired in 2010 was paid more than $60,000 in unused leave and sick time.
She said she would consider introducing a bill when the Legislature convenes next year that would stop the practice of accumulating such benefits.
The newspaper said all state agencies, including colleges and universities, paid more than $8 million in unused leave and sick time during the last fiscal year, about $22 million in fiscal 2009-10 and more than $25 million in fiscal 2008-09.
In the first two months of the current fiscal year, which began July 1, the state has paid more than $2 million.
The Legislature capped the number of leave and sick hours state workers can accrue in 1988, but under the 696-hour cap, departing workers can still get huge final paychecks, particularly longtime employees who earned higher salaries.
A retiring state worker who earns $80,000 a year could walk away with an additional $26,000.
Accumulated leave and sick time is paid based on an employee’s hourly wage at the time of separation, not the wage at the time the hours were accrued.
Bradford said state rules also allow workers to claim overtime pay in weeks when they took holiday or vacation time if their total hours, including holiday and vacation time, exceed 40 hours. She says her research turned up a state worker who was paid nearly $35,000 in overtime in 2010.
Kathy Nesbitt, director of the Department of Personnel and Administration, said she would look into stopping that practice.
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Information from: The Daily Sentinel,
