Legislative Staff Recommends Cutting Raises, Benefits Of State Employees Just Ratified In Contract

State employees last Wednesday ratified a new one-year contract that provided 2% raises, regular step increases, health premium holidays and other financial benefits they had been denied in the lean years of the Great Recession.

Two days later, the legislature’s budget staff recommended rolling back about half the negotiated increases, moves that took the largest state union by surprise, calling them “alarming” and “disturbing.”

“We find this budget analysis almost shocking,” Sue Esty, legislative affairs director for Council 3 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, told the House Appropriations Committee Friday.

More