LITTLE ROCK — State employees will receive an estimated $24 million in merit bonuses for fiscal year 2012 next month, state finance officials said Friday.
The announcement came two days after Gov. Mike Beebe announced he was adding $39.4 million to the state budget forecast for fiscal year 2012 as the result of an upward trend in state revenues, particularly in individual and corporate tax receipts.
“That made some more money available for general-revenue agencies to be able to pay for this,” said Tim Leathers, deputy director of the state Department of Finance and Administration.
Leathers said $9 million of the money will come from general revenue and the rest from federal and special revenues.
In previous years, most state employees received merit pay in the form of salary increases. A recent change in the law requires all eligible employees to receive merit bonuses in lump sums when funds are available.
The bonuses will be included in paychecks employees receive on June 29. Employees will receive a 1 percent bonus for satisfactory performance, a 2 percent bonus for above-average performance and a 3 percent bonus for exceeding performance standards