State employee raises are on taxpayers' dime

This editorial was published in the March 15, 2010, Yakima Herald-Republic.

Before this year's legislative session began, I told the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board that we should make government more efficient before we gut small-school funding or raise taxes. The first step, I said, is for the governor to reopen collective bargaining agreements for public employees.

I believed then and I believe now that we need to bring down government's cost of doing business. We should not raise taxes on people who do not have jobs in order to give pay raises to state employees who do.

One of the state's labor agreements says that "employees who are hired at the minimum step of their pay range will receive a two-step increase to base salary following completion of six months of continuous service. Thereafter, employees will receive a two-step pay increase annually, on their periodic increment date, until they reach the top of the pay range."

In other words -- despite what you may have heard -- there are Washington state employees who will receive pay raises at a time when hundreds of thousands of private-sector workers are losing their jobs. The cost to taxpayers? More than $16 million.

I'm not opposed to folks getting a raise when they have earned one, but at times like these, everyone must share in the sacrifice. This year, legislators' salaries were frozen, and staff in the House of Representatives, not protected by unions, took 40 hours of unpaid leave. In addition, dozens of staff volunteered extra unpaid leave to save their co-workers' jobs. Meanwhile, state employees continue to pay just 12 percent of their health insurance costs and many receive pay raises, while their co-workers were laid off.

Neither the governor nor the Democrats who control the Legislature expressed any interest in renegotiating with union leaders. Sadly, according to the governor, union leadership was more interested in keeping pay raises and benefit packages than keeping people on the job.

My Republican colleagues and I tried to make changes. In the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia, offered a budget proposal that would have saved at least $16 million by renegotiating collective bargaining agreements and eliminating pay increases. The proposal, which included a variety of other ideas, was rejected by the Democrats in the committee.

Our state's chief economist saw our revenue stream begin to flatten out more than a year ago before the union contract mentioned above was signed. He warned, "The national outlook is much weaker than assumed in November 2007 due in part to weaker employment growth, falling consumer confidence, and a housing market that continues to deteriorate. For the first time since 2001, the forecast expects a national recession."

It was at this point we should have slowed down spending, and made more realistic agreements with state employee unions for pay raises and benefits. That's part of the reason the Legislature out-spent revenue by $1.6 billion in 2009 and $1.2 billion in 2010.

The majority party's actions in Olympia have doubled-down on past failures and lost some real opportunities to plan for the long-term economy of this state.

We have seen nothing new out of the majority or the governor to address overspending and a long-term solution to this economic downturn. Despite several ideas being provided by Republicans to spur job growth and find efficiencies in government, our ideas were ignored.

Get used to hearing about tax increases, because unless the majority in the Legislature is willing to make drastic changes in the operations of state government, we cannot expect different results. Only together can we share in the sacrifice and bring our state back from this economic downturn and create a better future for our children.

* Charles Ross represents the 14th District, which includes Yakima, Union Gap, Tieton, Naches, and Selah. He is the Republican assistant floor leader and serves on the House Ways and Means Committee.