Thursday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law bills providing pay raises for state employees, education employees and a one-time bonus for retired state employees; joining her for the signing were the sponsors of the bills.
“We cannot have an effective state government without excellent employees. I am proud to have proposed the first raise for state employees to pass in close to a decade and I appreciate the work of the legislature in approving the pay increase as well as a one-time bonus for retired state employees,” Ivey said. “Our teachers mold our children and thus our teachers mold our future – that’s why I proposed a teacher pay raise and why I am pleased to sign it into law.”
House Bill 174 was sponsored by state Rep. Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, and carried in the Senate by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur. HB174 enacts a 2.5 percent salary increase for public education employees of K-12 public schools, the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, the Department of Youth Services School District, the Alabama School of Fine Arts, the Alabama High School of Mathematics and Science and the two-year post-secondary institutions under the Board of Trustees for the Community College System, effective Oct. 1, 2018.
Senate Bill 185 was sponsored by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, and carried in the House by state Rep. Dimitri Polizos, R-Montgomery. SB185 enacts a three percent salary increase for state employees and appellate judges effective beginning Oct. 1, 2018.
Senate Bill 215 was sponsored by Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, and carried in the Alabama House by state Rep. Connie Rowe, R-Jasper. SB215 grants a one-time lump-sum bonus of one dollar per month for each year of service to Employees’ Retirement System retirees whose effective date of retirement is prior to May 1, 2018, or their beneficiaries. This one-time bonus will be granted during Fiscal Year 2018.
State employees and teachers have not gotten many raises since before the Great Recession of 2008 to 2009, but the state has avoided prorating the budgets since 2011.
The 2019 fiscal year budget is the second largest in state history, being surpassed only by the 2007 budget.
