JAC Mulls Governor's Plans

Cheyenne, Wy – As the Joint Appropriations Committee goes through agency budgets, they are spending some time looking at the Governor's proposal to eliminate contract employees and are looking at the issue of pay raises. By eliminating contract employees, the Governor says he can get a better handle on who is working in state government. But, committee members are finding that the move is not necessarily saving them money because the contract employees now qualify for benefits. Meanwhile, the appropriations committee is also looking at the impacts of the Governor's proposed 3% pay hike for state employees. In his proposal the Governor is leaving it up to agencies to generate funds to give special employees more than the across the board increase. That concerns Senator Irene Devin. She says it isn't fair to agencies that don't have a revenue source.
Senator John Schiffer says the committee might want to create a special fund to handle such situations for those agencies that don't have extra money.