By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
State Sen. Dan Hegeman of Cosby says state worker compensation will be one of the top issues facing legislators when they return to Jefferson City next month.
Hegeman, a Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, says low state pay is costing the state some quality workers.
“We are really losing employees in some really needed areas, such as mental health, such as our veterans’ homes, keeping the staff there; correctional workers,” Hegeman tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Hegeman says there is room in the state budget for across-the-board state employee pay raises and suggests the legislature could even meet prior to the next regular session to address the issue.
Gov. Mike Parson has proposed a 5.5% pay raise for state employees. He will also ask legislators to set a $15/hour minimum wage for state employees. The governor would like to provide state worker pay raises by the first of February.
Hegeman says the state can afford to loosen the purse strings in a number of areas. He says legislators need to review school funding.
“I think keeping up with elementary and secondary education, fully funding the Foundation Formula, and trying to do more on the transportation categorical is important to me.”
Federal funds disbursed by Congress to the states to help in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and help recover from its blow to state economies must be dealt with early in the legislative session. Hegeman says COVID relief money must be allocated by March.
“So, there’s some pressures early on to maybe do a supplemental budget on this year’s budget, but then also look at next year’s budget which will have a lot of (those) federal dollars in the Fiscal Year ‘23 budget,” Hegeman says.
Hegeman says the federal funds from the American Rescue Plan might need to be handled separately, but he says that likely will be up to the House, where all budget bills originate. Hegeman says none of the federal funds should be spent to pay for on-going expenses, but should be reserved for one-time expenses.
“So, like deferred maintenance type of projects or some new capital projects out there,” Hegeman says. “One-time monies for one-time purposes.”
Hegeman is pleased with the current state of the state budget. He worries though about the effect of voter-approved Medicaid expansion, which he points out didn’t contain a funding mechanism.
“So, I would look for a mechanism to maybe help stabilize that and continue that for the future,” Hegeman says. “At some point it will impact our General Revenue budget and it will impact all those entities that rely on the General Revenue portion of the budget.”
The Missouri General Assembly meets for the new legislative session next month. The governor’s office estimates the state employee pay raise the governor suggests would cost the state $218 million annually. The governor’s proposal would add to the 2% state employee pay raise scheduled to go into effect in January.