By Joe Rogalsky,
Delaware State News
DOVER - The budget recommendations Gov. Ruth Ann Minner will release in January will likely include across-the-board pay raises for state workers and extra increases for correctional officers, administration officials said Tuesday.
Budget director Jennifer W. Davis and Minner spokesman Gregory B. Patterson wouldn't speculate on the size of the workers' raise for fiscal year 2006, which begins July 1.
Mr. Patterson said Gov. Minner was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
He said the governor is "inclined" to support a pay hike for state workers as long as next month's revenue estimates for fiscal 2006 do not nosedive.
"We will likely do some sort of pay increase," Mrs. Davis said during a press briefing on a report detailing possible pay and staffing incentives for correctional officers.
Mrs. Davis released a report Tuesday outlining price estimates for various recommendations a task force studying correctional officer issues made in January.
The report goes to Gov. Minner and the General Assembly's budget-writing committee.
Included in the report are estimates that increasing officers' hazardous duty pay by $600 will cost $1.1 million and making the 5 percent raise they will receive Jan. 1 permanent would cost $2.6 million.
Gov. Minner and lawmakers have already promised the $600 increase to officers in fiscal 2006.
On Tuesday, Mr. Patterson said Gov. Minner "is committed" to including the 5 percent raise in her spending plan. Without funding in the fiscal 2006 budget, the 5 percent increase could evaporate July 1.
The budget office, state personnel office and the controller general's office - the legislature's financial arm - compiled the report released Tuesday.
It analyzes recommendations made by a task force consisting of state officials and correctional officers, which sought to come up with ways to attract more officers and keep them once they signed on.
"This is an attempt to analyze, revise and quantify the recommendation of the task force report, which was pretty global," Mrs. Davis said.
"The report laid out a lot of recommendations without saying what they cost."
Tuesday's report touched on issues such as allowing correctional officers to retire after 25 years instead of 30, which would cost the state $6.9 million annually; creating new pay grades, a cost of $2.5 million a year; and longevity pay to reward officers who remain with the state, a cost of $626,600 per year.
Mrs. Davis said Tuesday she did not know whether any of those proposals would be included in Gov. Minner's January budget recommendations.
"I will not attempt to presuppose what the governor is going to do," Mrs. Davis said.
If Gov. Minner and lawmakers approve any of the measures, they will have to consider the impact on other state workers.
Enhancing pay or benefits for correctional officers will bring calls from other workers for similar treatment, and that will affect the budget.
For example, the $626,600 price tag for the longevity pay jumps to $3.9 million if all state workers are included. Expanding the 25-year retirement system for all state workers would cost $10 million.
"There are equity questions for other groups of employees," Mrs. Davis said.
"We need to do our due diligence in looking at the options we have laid out.
"Significant time and attention has been paid to correctional officer issues. You are starting to hear other groups say 'me too.' We have a responsibility to focus on all state employees."
Some of the proposals analyzed in Tuesday's report carry no costs. For example, the correctional officer task force recommended that the state develop a supplemental benefits program, which would allow officers to purchase additional insurance coverage through the state.
Mrs. Davis said state officials are already working on such a program, which offers products such as automobile insurance, homeowners insurance, pet insurance, long-term disability coverage, an eye care plan and a pre-paid legal program. The state expects to launch the initiative in the spring or summer of 2005, Mrs. Davis said.
Employees would pay all the premiums, costing the state nothing. The state would use its large purchasing power to get employees discounted premiums.
Correctional officers have been concerned for years about low pay and staffing levels.
Those issues reached the front burner after a July 12 incident at Delaware Correctional Center, in which an inmate took a counselor hostage and raped her before being shot to death.
Allan Deal, president of the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware, said he had not seen the report as of Tuesday afternoon.
He said he and other members of the union were concerned officers would receive only the 5 percent raise and hazardous duty pay increases. Those steps, he said, would not adequately address the staffing shortage.
Post comments on this issue at newsblog.info/0407. Staff writer Joe Rogalsky can be reached at 741-8226 or jrogalsky@newszap.com
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