THE
State Employees Association of North Carolina, SEIU Local 2008 1621 Midtown Place, Raleigh, NC 27609 • www.seanc.org 800-222-2758 • 919-833-6436 • Circulation 55,000
November 2015
• Vol. 34, Issue 1
Budget passes with $750 bonus, no COLA By Jonathan Owens SEANC Director of Communications
After the longest negotiation in 13 years, the House and Senate finally agreed to a state budget on Sept. 18 that provides just a $750 bonus for state employees – a one-time payment that will have no lasting effect on salaries. The legislature also decided not to call for a cost-of-living adjustment for retirees even though investment gains would fund a 1-percent increase without costing the state a dime. If you will recall, the House, thanks to EMPAC Legislator of the Year Rep. Nelson Dollar (R-Wake), had proposed a 2-percent pay increase and 40 hours of bonus leave for active employees and a 2-percent cost-ofliving adjustment for retirees. Neither the Senate’s plan nor the governor’s plan included raises at all. The bonus leave was also cut from the final budget. The $750 bonus equates to around 1.75 percent of the average state employee’s salary. For anyone making less than $37,500 a year, it would be more than 2 percent of salary, more than they would have received in the House budget. Still, SEANC pushes for salary increases rather than bonuses because increases have positive effects on not only pay in the future but also retirement benefits. The bonus will be distributed to employees in December, according to
Details of the final 2015-16 state budget • Includes a $750 one-time bonus for state employees and teachers. No COLAs or bonus leave, which were part of the House’s original proposal. • Includes salary increases for community college employees at the discretion of the system. • Includes step increase and market-based salary increase for state troopers, magistrates and court personnel. • Includes custody-level pay adjustment for some correctional officers. SEANC has yet to see the final plan for this. • Includes funding for the retirement system. • Doubles wellness premium surcharges on State Health Plan. • Maintains State Health Plan benefits for 2016, but will likely lead to cuts in 2017. • Raises teacher starting salary to $35,000. • Includes funding of teaching assistant positions at 2014-15 levels. • Contains no prison closures. • Includes start-up funding for Samarcand Training Academy. • Funds community corrections safety equipment and electronic monitoring. • Moves the N.C. Zoo, N.C. Aquariums, state parks and other state attractions to the Department of Cultural Resources, which will now be called the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources will now be called the Department of Environmental Quality. • Creates cabinet-level agencies to oversee Information Technology and Veterans’ Affairs.
language in a technical corrections bill passed on the last day of the session on Sept. 30. The deal also includes step-pay increases for state troopers, magistrates and teachers. It also includes pay raises for community college workers, but leaves the amount up to individual college administrations. Some correctional officers will receive a custody-level pay adjustment for some correctional officers. SEANC has yet to see the final plan, though,
and has no details on it at this time. More than 9,000 teacher assistant jobs that were cut in the Senate budget received funding in the final budget. But the legislature put restrictions on that funding to force local school districts to use that money to pay for teacher assistant salaries only. Some districts used that money to pay teacher salaries in the past. Starting teacher salaries were also raised to $35,000. jowens@seanc.org