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Gov. Jim
Doyle
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MADISON - Gov. Jim Doyle said Monday
his decision to suspend merit pay raises and bonuses is unfair to
hardworking state employees but necessary to balance the budget.
Records released Monday show state
agencies awarded more than 1,500 discretionary pay raises and
bonuses to employees over a 15-month period that ended Oct. 1.
An analysis of the data by The
Associated Press shows more than 80 percent of them were hourly
raises added to employees' base salaries. The increases averaged
$1.30 per hour. The remainders were lump sum bonuses that averaged
about $1,260 apiece.
The discretionary pay increases are
given to reward merit, retain employees and compensate those who
take on additional duties, among other reasons. But Doyle announced
last week he was suspending them as one of several measures to
reduce the state's projected $5.4 billion budget deficit.
He also announced he would leave
3,500 state jobs vacant, slash agency budgets and sell 500 state
cars to begin offsetting a budget shortfall expected to grow to $5.4
billion by mid-2011. The governor also is expected to seek new taxes
on hospitals and oil companies next year to help plug the gap.
His decision to eliminate merit pay
increases had immediate impact across the state bureaucracy,
canceling bonuses and raises that were in the works but had not been
approved. A UW System spokesman said the decision nixes pending pay
raises for numerous employees but no definite figures for the UW or
other agencies was available Monday.
Doyle said Monday that state agencies
had used the raises and bonuses appropriately in recent years to
manage their workforce, but the state can longer afford them.
"Frankly, it really pains me to
do this because this is one way that you do recognize and reward
people who go above and beyond," he told reporters after an
appearance at University Research Park. "There are many people
in state government who are working long hours on very difficult
projects and that's the purpose for these kinds of bonuses, to
recognize that."
"It's just one of these things
— and there will be many — you just cannot do when you are
facing this kind of economic downturn."
Administration spokeswoman Linda
Barth said the bonuses and raises cost the state more than $4.5
million last year. She said Doyle's announcement will save the state
money, but it's difficult to say how much since the amount awarded
varies greatly from year to year.
Over the past decade, the number of
awards have ranged from a low of 811 in 1999 to a high of 2,615 in
2002 under then-Gov. Scott McCallum, according to administration
figures. During Doyle's six-year tenure, the state has awarded an
average of 1,300 per year.
During the most recent 15-month
period, the University of Wisconsin System accounted for more than
40 percent of the awards, according to AP's review. The Department
of Transportation handed out the second most.
The largest lump sum bonus awarded
was $5,360 for a University of Wisconsin-Madison food service
administrator. The largest hourly raise was $5.70 and went to a
nursing supervisor in the Department of Health Services.
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