A key committee of the Alaska House of Representatives advanced plans to scuttle a 2.5 percent cost-of-living increase for non-union state employees Monday, paralleling a bid to do the same for about 15,600 unionized state and University of Alaska employees.
The House Finance Committee endorsed the one-line bill, House Bill 176, on a 6-4 vote, setting the stage for a vote by the full House. The measure would repeal a 2013 law that gives non-union state workers a 2.5 percent cost of living increase July 1, after getting a 1 percent increase in both 2013 and 2014.
In 2013, the Parnell administration said the scheduled increase would match the major agreements negotiated by labor unions representing state and university workers. "It establishes the consistency for cost-of-living allowances," Curtis Thayer, then the deputy commissioner of the Department of Administration, testified.
The current bill negating the pay raise would apply to about 1,300 employees of the executive branch, as well as to hundreds in the legislative and judicial branches of government.
Non-union employees in state government range from workers in agencies such as the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. to attorneys in the Department of Law, employees in the governor's office and doctors in the Department of Health and Social Services.
The bill would cut more than $2 million in total raises for the judicial branch, more than $1 million for the legislative branch and about $6 million for the executive branch.
The fate of the raise for non-union employees is likely to be determined by whether the House and Senate negotiators on the budget conference committee accept or reject the raise for the unionized workers this week.
In a short hearing Monday, no members of the public testified on the bill dealing with non-union workers.
"I'm just wondering if this is our effort to organize those employees. The only people that don't have somebody speaking up or standing up for them are getting cut," said Rep. David Guttenberg, D-Fairbanks.
Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, said the three-year plan with the non-union employees should be honored, along with the union agreements.
Rep. Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River, said the state's oil revenue was significantly higher in 2013 than today and the state has two choices. "I think the calculus we need to consider is either cut people's jobs or hold salaries steady after two years of increases," he said.
Gara said there are more than two choices. The state plans to hand out more than $500 million in tax credits above what it expects to collect in oil taxes over the next two years, Gara said.
"This isn't a discussion on oil taxes," House Finance Co-chairman Steve Thompson of Fairbanks said.
"I'm just saying there are more options," Gara continued. "Without putting things like that on the table, of course you're going to have to keep cutting. There are other options and there are smarter options."
The committee advanced HB 176 on a 6-4 vote, with Reps. Thompson, Saddler, Lynn Gattis, Tammie Wilson, Lance Pruitt and Mark Neuman in favor. Reps. Guttenberg, Gara, Cathy Munoz and Bryce Edgmon voted against it.