CHARLESTON, W.Va. – About one month away from announcing the state’s budget for next year, Governor Patrick Morrisey says it will include a pay raise for all state employees.
During an administration update on Thursday, Morrisey revealed his plan to build in the increase for teachers, school service personnel, state police, corrections officers, and other workers.
“We know that the people that we’re trying to help today—these are the people that are teaching our kids. They’re fixing our roads and bridges. They’re guarding our prisons. They’re protecting us from the bad people out there, and they administer many of the programs that our citizens rely on,” he said.
The announcement comes on the heels of a press conference held by Republican members of the House of Delegates earlier this week in which the majority rolled out its priorities for the upcoming legislative session. Those priorities include setting money aside to increase pay for school employees.
“We’re looking at doing a teacher and service personnel pay raise that is about $110 million, in addition to increase on the budget. $80 million would be, about, for salaries and about $30 million in benefits,” House Finance Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood, said on Tuesday.
Morrisey took that plan a step further, praising the House Republicans for championing teacher pay while expanding the scope to include all state employees. He hopes to collaborate with the legislature to make this happen.
“We already know that there are people in the House and the Senate that have been talking about the importance of teacher pay raises. I applaud that. I think it’s great, and let me tell you, I’m looking forward to working with the legislature on the package that will ultimately go through,” he said.
The figures suggested by Criss work out to a pay increase of approximately 5% for teachers and service personnel. Numbers on what the governor’s plan could do for employees’ pocketbooks aren’t clear yet.
“We’re getting to the final stages of our budget that’ll be coming out during the State of the State, which is, I believe, January 14, so as we get closer to that, we might have more color to add, and most assuredly, it’ll be all public by the State of the State,” Morrisey said.
The proposed raise comes as questions still loom about the future of the state Public Employees Insurance Agency. Morrisey believes positive steps are being taken with PEIA, and a pay increase marks another move to support state workers.
“This is a priority, and we’re doing this on the heels of real progress with what we’ve done administratively on PEIA,” he said.
The 87th West Virginia Legislature will officially meet for its second session on January 14.