Gov. Bill Haslam delivers his annual State of the State address to the Tennessee Legislature in Nashville in this Feb. 9, 2015, file photo.NASHVILLE — After running into one legislative buzz saw on his Medicaid expansion proposal, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam may be racing toward another on an idea that would affect pay for thousands of veteran state employees.
The governor in his State of the State address last week proposed eliminating “longevity” pay for state executive branch employees. It’s part of a larger overhaul of state salaries that began in 2012 and included a new, five-tiered evaluation system and merit pay.
Early indications are the idea of ending longevity pay is not going over well in the GOP-dominated General Assembly. Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey is already calling it a “tough sell.”
The plan gives workers with three or more years of service $100 for each year, atop their base salaries. The benefit tops out at $3,000 per year for 30 years’ service or more.
Haslam wants to end the payments, estimated to cost $31.5 million annually. His plan? Put half of the money into the affected employees’ base salary. The rest would be poured into a roughly $30 million merit pay pool, with awards based on tougher, performance-based evaluations Haslam already has implemented. The administration acknowledges that ending longevity pay would mean some employees’ checks would shrink.