HB 1 and SF 2: GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS [state employee compensation amendments] - 1998 Budget/Special Session

During the 1998 budget debate, amendments were offered to continue using part of the "reversion" funds (money left unspent in agency budgets at the end of the fiscal year) for state employee salary increases.

As noted above in the descriptions for HB 1 and SF 2 (1997), the 1997 Legislature provided that 40% of the funds left in agency budgets at the end of the biennium would revert to the SECC for salary increases.

In 1998, on a voice vote, the House approved an amendment to increase the percentage of reversions allocated to state employee salaries from 40% to 50%. However, the same amendment failed 12-18 in the Senate, leaving the allocation at 40%.

Proponents of increasing the percentage of reversions from 40% to 50% argued that the additional funding was needed to continue meeting the state’s goal of bringing employee salaries to 90% of market, using performance-based criteria.

Opponents argued that reversions at 40% would mean approximately $4.8 million for state employee raises, and it would not be fair to give state employees more than the $5 million allocated to the University of Wyoming (UW) for pay raises.

(Note: There are about twice as many non-UW state employees as UW employees.)