The Legislative Session is wrapped up and we wanted to share a few updates for everyone who didnât make it to the recent Membership Meeting.
- If you felt like you had whiplash during this Session, you were not alone! We are still trying to make sense of what happened and we explain what we observed in the Budget Details below.
- House Bill 2, aka the Budget Bill, has an appropriation for a 3% cost of living increase for all State Employees. This goes into effect the first full pay period after the start of the next fiscal year (July 6â19), which means you will see it in your July 26 paycheck.
- The State Employee Evaluation Task Force (aka Classification and Compensation Study) is ongoing and we secured promises from several Legislators and staff that they are prepared to fully fund the findings of the study in the next Session. Many of you recently completed the job satisfaction survey by Deloitte. The data from the survey will be used as part of the Classification and Compensation Study.
- Paid Family and Medical Leave did not pass by three votes on the House Floor, but we will continue the fight for PFML next year.
- While many of us left this session feeling frustrated and unheard by legislative leaders, we did achieve one major goal! Thanks to the activism of our steward team and members in the Environment Department, the budget includes $6.1 million to fix pay inequities for our Members at that Agency. We plan to use this grievance as a precedent to force the State to fix pay across all of our agencies
- There is power in numbers and any influence we have over the Budget process is through the advocacy efforts of our Members making calls, sending emails, and providing public comment. This is why it is important to have a strong and engaged Membership! Next year is a 60-day Legislative Session and we will be pushing for our standing priorities â like telework and a shorter probationary period â that we werenât able to push for in the 30-day Session this year.
- This is a big election year in New Mexico and it’s a great opportunity to elect candidates who will support our priorities in the Roundhouse. Our CWA Political Action Fund is separate from member dues and is used to support candidates that support State Workers! Click here to set up a recurring donation.
The Budget Details
If you felt like you had whiplash during this Session, you were not alone! We are still trying to make sense of what happened, but we will do our best to explain what we observed.
A couple of days before the Session started, the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) released a budget recommendation that included a 2% cost of living adjustment (COLA) and 2% for âsalary adjustments pursuant to a pay plan approved by the state personnel director.â The budget passed out of the House with this same language on January 31. While communications from the House Appropriation and Finance Committee (HAFC) indicated that this additional 2% was to fix pay issues like Appropriate Placement and internal alignment, there was actually no language in the body of the bill that would require that. We were concerned that all that money would just go to managers and our members would be stuck with only a 2% COLA.
Next, the budget passed to the Senate Finance Committee (SFC). At this point, we launched our first email campaign to ask for a more equitable COLA with a higher percentage for our lowest paid workers, in addition to the 2% for salary adjustments. Over 230 of our members sent emails to the SFC and many of us made phone calls as well.
The SFC sat on the budget for much longer than expected and when it was finally made public, we were shocked to see that the language was changed drastically. While the COLA was increased to 3%, which was a win, the additional 2% language was gone. This decreased the overall budgetary appropriation by 1%! At this point, we joined with both the Teacherâs Union and AFSCME to ask the Senate to âRestore the 4%â appropriation. While only 150 of our members sent emails in this campaign, the other two Unions sent thousands.
Both ahead of and during the Session, our President Megan Green, Vice President Linsey Hurst, and a few of our Political Action Committee Members met with key Legislators on both HAFC and SFC to press for larger raises for State Workers. But, we want to be clearâ the Legislature does not consult us when making decisions about the COLA.
There is power in numbers and any influence we have over the Budget process is through the advocacy efforts of our Members making calls, sending emails, and providing public comment. This is why it is important to have a strong and engaged Membership!