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Ericksen counters Democrat claims about split
state pay raise
Governor,
House Democrat leader are on record as endorsing bias
House
Deputy Republican Leader Doug Ericksen is countering published claims by Gov. Chris Gregoire
and House Democrat Leader Lynn Kessler that they opposed continued
Democrat bias against non-union state employees.
The new 2007-09 state
operating budget adopted by lawmakers April 22 will, for the second
straight biennium, make pay raises for non-union employees effective
September 1, two months after raises for their unionized counterparts
take effect.
A
story in today's edition of The Olympian quotes Gregoire as saying
she was "run over" by Democrat legislators regarding the split pay
raise, and describes Kessler as being opposed to the move.
However, Ericksen
notes, Gregoire included the pay-raise delay in her own budget proposal
(click
here to download PDF, scroll to page 168 and "nonrepresented
employee compensation"), as did the House Democrat budget proposal
issued March 20. Kessler is a member of the House budget committee.
"If the governor opposes this blatant
bias against a large percentage of our
hard-working state employees, including her own staff and many in state
agencies, particularly our higher education institutions, she should have used her budget proposal to send that
message,"
said Ericksen, R-Ferndale. "Earlier this month she had another chance to
endorse the position taken in the Senate budget proposal, which had all
pay raises occurring July 1, but her
letter to the budget writers didn't mention it. It sounds to me like
our governor has a selective memory.
"The governor's budget
proposal is released weeks before the Legislature convenes, and she is
under no obligation to accommodate what Democrat legislators
tell her they want. Nothing forced her to put the delay for
non-union employee raises in her budget, but there it is, in Section
914. If she's going to endorse such bias, she should be forthright about
that," Ericksen continued.
"The members of her party
in the Legislature have the votes to ignore her and pass whatever budget
and act with bias against whomever they wish, and the governor knew that going
in. Is it leadership to roll over -- or tell people you did -- instead
of fighting for your beliefs,
because you're worried about being run over?"
Kessler had an opportunity
to make her own public statement against the uneven pay split
when the operating budget proposal came before the Appropriations
committee, Ericksen noted.
"Through our chief budget negotiator, Representative Gary Alexander,
House Republicans offered an
amendment to make all state pay raises effective July 1.
Representative Kessler did not vote for that amendment. Where was her
opposition to the split then?"
If Kessler opposed the
favoritism toward union employees, as she told The Olympian, and the
accompanying published claim that Speaker of the House Frank Chopp
wasn't involved in the decision is accurate, Ericksen wonders who that
leaves.
"Representative (Helen)
Sommers has publicly supported the pay split, and while I disagree with
her, at least I don't see her trying to run away now. Keep in mind that
Representative Sommers publicly opposed the rainy-day fund resolution,
only to be 'rolled' by a majority of her party in the Senate and House,
and the governor.
It would be disingenuous to suggest that she managed to roll the
governor or the Legislature on the pay raise timing. I'm confident the
support for this bias goes high into the Democrat hierarchy,"
Ericksen said.
# # #
Contact: Rep. Ericksen, (360) 786-7980
John Handy, Assistant Director, House Republican Communications, (360)
786-5758
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