Gov. Bruce Rauner and Illinois’ lawmakers could see a $412 million hole shot through the budget.
The Illinois Labor Relations Board has denied the governor’s challenge to an order that step increases totaling $412 million dollars be paid to 14,000 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31. No step raises have been given since 2015.
Gov. Bruce Rauner froze the step increases – automatic compounding pay raises for public employees – saying that lawmakers never appropriated the money for them.
Rauner’s office has estimated it will cost $412 million for just the four years of pay raises if the state is forced to pay all of the past years’ frozen step increases in the fiscal 2019 budget.
In the July hearing, the board should send the matter to a compliance officer who will decide how the matter will be resolved. AFSCME will petition for a “make-whole remedy” that they say the office will have 75 days to act on, according to a news release from the union.
“Our union will keep doing everything possible to make sure that employees are placed on the correct step and made whole for the increases they’ve been denied,” AFSCME Executive Director Roberta Lynch said in a statement.
What happens next is in the hands of the labor board, a representative from the governor’s office said in a statement.
“The courts have referred this matter to the Illinois Labor Relations Board – they are currently making decisions about what the next steps are and will help determine how we proceed,” the statement said.
The step increases are calculated as a percentage increase in each additional year of seniority up to a maximum of 11 years. In 2015, the cost of the raises was $38.7 million, but that balloons to more than $170 million by the coming fiscal year.
Illinois state workers are among the highest paid in the nation, with an average salary $63,000. That salary figure does not include the cost of state-provided benefits.
The fiscal 2019 budget includes a $63 million appropriation for raises promised under former Gov. Pat Quinn, but there was no appropriation for the AFSCME step increases.