Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer
By Dustin Hurst ǀ Watchdog.org
HELENA — For once-denied Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, perseverance is key.
It’s also expensive.
Schweitzer and a number of the state’s public labor unions struck a deal earlier this week to give public workers and teachers 10 percent more pay over the next two years, costing the state as much as $137 million.
The deal also includes the state pitching in more for employee health care costs.
The deal comes just weeks after the Montana Board of Personnel ruled the Legislature, not the governor, has the final say on pay raises for public staffers.
The board’s verdict came after Schweitzer promised a 4 percent pay hike through two years just before the 2011 legislative session. Montana Watchdog reports the deal was worth about $20 million.
Schweitzer’s plan, however, fell flat in the Republican-controlled 2011 Legislature. GOP lawmakers rejected the raise, instead freezing public worker pay. It meant employees would go a full four years without pay increases.
After Schweitzer’s raise hike tanked, unions complained to the board that the Legislature acted in bad faith and the raises were legally deserved. The board ruled otherwise and unions are mulling a court appeal.
The governor will not be in office to attempt to ramrod the deal through the Capitol.
Due term limits, Schweitzer will leave the governor’s mansion in January, making way for Democrat Steve Bullock, the state’s attorney general, or former Republican U.S. Rep. Rick Hill to take his place.
Union officials are keyed up at the prospect of the new money, which they say will benefit up 16,000 public workers, union and non-union alike.
“I’m happy with it,” Quinton Nyman, director of the Montana Public Employees Association told Montana Watchdog earlier this week. “It’s what the members asked for and the money is there.”
Unions note that the state, at least according to Schweitzer’s office, is projected to hold $490 million in extra tax revenue.
Eric Feaver, head of the 17,000-member teachers union, wrote in an email Tuesday that work is needed to elect candidates – most likely Democrats – who will push the plan through the Capitol.
“And now we – all of us – roll up our sleeves and elbow grease our way to and through the next general election and the 2013 legislature to get the deal we have made with,” Feaver wrote.
“It is up to us to do the political work that matters to make a so richly earned and badly needed difference.”
State Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, running for the Montana House of Representatives after a four-term stint in the Senate, said passage might come down to who controls the Capitol.
“It depends on who’s there,” Lewis said Wednesday.
The senator couldn’t give any taste of lawmakers’ feelings on pay raises next year, as data on public compensation is still forthcoming and review is needed.
He would offer his initial reaction to the Schweitzer plan.
“It seems like a lot, but I haven’t examined it yet,” Lewis relayed.
Senate Majority Whip Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, said the state has bigger fish to fry.
“We obviously need major structural pension reform,” Essmann explained, pointing to Montana’s public retirement deficit that ranges anywhere from $1.3 billion to $3.4 billion depending on the data.
To give state workers more money while not addressing the pension problem, Essmann said, would deliver double-trouble for the Treasure State because it would increase the retirement funding gap.
Essmann won’t entirely denounce the raise idea, but like Lewis, said he is waiting for forthcoming data on public employee compensation. He also wants to ensure the projected unbudgeted revenue hits the bank before handing out promises to spend it.
Even if revenues come in high, Essmann said Montana still needs to exercise fiscal caution and frugality.
“What can the taxpayers afford long-term?” Essmann pondered.
