LITTLE ROCK — State employees will go without a cost-of-living adjustment next fiscal year because the government doesn’t have the money to cover the cost, Gov. Mike Beebe said Wednesday.
“I think they ought to have a COLA, and if we had the money, I’d be proposing it, and I did propose it a year ago. But the additional tax cuts precluded our ability to do that because you can’t spend what you don’t have,” Beebe told reporters before giving a talk to the Political Animals Club at the Governor’s Mansion.
Beebe’s proposed budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year, unveiled Tuesday, includes $163 million in spending increases but no cost-of-living adjustment for state employees. Last year, Beebe proposed a 1.86 percent raise for state workers in his budget for the current fiscal year, but the COLA was axed when the Legislature approved about $20 million more in tax cuts than the governor requested.
Beebe said Wednesday he was open to ideas for paying for a COLA, but he did not see a way to cover the roughly $20 million cost without cutting services.
“There’s no $20 million pot unless you take it out of education or human services,” he said.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
House Speaker Robert Moore, D-Arkansas City, attended the club’s meeting and told reporters later he did not know whether legislators could reach a consensus on a way to fund a COLA for state employees.
“There are a lot of ideas, but not ideas that have surfaced into a consensus we want to talk about right now,” he said.
Moore said he expects to know before the Legislature’s fiscal session begins on Feb. 13 whether an agreement can be reached.
Beebe also said Wednesday he had authorized the release of $50,000 from his emergency fund to keep scores of court personnel across the state on the job through February.
Beebe’s third monthly infusion of money into the state’s Administration of Justice fund will enable judges to avoid placing 125 trial court assistants on furlough because of a shortfall court funds collected through court costs.
Beebe released $40,000 in November and December. The governor said Wednesday he would not seek a supplemental appropriation for the fund during the fiscal session.
“We’ve done something for three months to try to keep them afloat with the idea that they needed to get a better handle on their special revenue,” Beebe said.
He said the courts should improve collection of court costs. Failing that, he said, reprioritizing budget expenses might be in order.
Legislators have listed the fund from which court personnel are paid among the matters they will evaluate during the budget session.
The governor also said he is waiting for the results of investigations by state auditors and the U.S. Department of Agriculture before deciding whether to take action at the state Forestry Commission.
Thirty-six employees of the commission, including more than a dozen firefighters, were laid off last week because of a $4 million shortfall at the agency. Present and past officials of the agency have accused each other of action or inaction that contributed to the funding shortage; some legislators have said Beebe deserves a share of the blame as well.
“I know what people have told me,” Beebe said Wednesday. “I want the additional objective, in-depth audit information.”
Beebe was asked if the results of the investigations would affect Director John Shannon’s future at the agency.
“All of those things will be taken into consideration,” he said.