MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Most public schoolteachers, administrators and employees will get a 4 percent pay raise next fiscal year under legislation and a budget approved by a Senate committee Tuesday.
The raise, if it wins final approval, will be the first take-home pay increase for teachers in many years.
The committee approved the $6.3 billion spending plan after making few changes to the House-passed budget. The full Alabama Senate could vote on the budget and raise legislation as soon as Wednesday as lawmakers hit the homestretch of the legislative session.
Teachers and school employees making less than $75,000 annually would get a 4 percent raise. Employees making more than that would get a 2 percent raise. The committee went along with a suggestion by Committee Chairman Arthur Orr to also give all principals and assistant principals a 4 percent raise regardless of current pay.
"Principals are the backbones of schools and make the trains run on time," Orr said.
Lawmakers in 2013 approved a 2 percent pay raise for teachers, but that raise was largely offset by increases in benefit costs. The last raise before that came in 2007.
"We appreciate this budget and support it fully," Susan Kennedy of the Alabama Education Association told the committee. Kennedy joked that it might be the first time that she has been listed as a proponent during a public hearing on the proposed spending plan.
The money available to spend in the Education Trust Fund is at its highest level since 2008 after years of tax collections taking a hit during the economic recession.
Lawmakers started the session with the goal of giving teachers a pay increase, but there has been disagreement about exactly how much the state can afford.
"The biggest fights we have in this chamber is when we have extra money," said Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville.
Dial and other lawmakers unsuccessfully argued that the raise, or other items in the budget, should be trimmed slightly in order to give a onetime bonus to retired education employees.
"It has been 10 years since education retirees have seen an increase," Janice Charlesworth of the Alabama Education Retirees Association told the committee.