Photo Courtesy/WV Governor’s Office BOOST IN PAY — Gov. Jim Justice, joined by Senate President Craig Blair, left, and House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, right, announced a 5% pay raise for state employees next year and a 2.5% one-time bonus.

CHARLESTON — Gov. Jim Justice and legislative leaders announced Thursday their intentions to propose a new 5% pay raise for state employees during the 2022 legislative session.

“It’s our responsibility right here to look after all the people in the State of West Virginia,” Justice said during a Thursday morning announcement at the Capitol. “However, we’ve got to look after our employees as well. As they’ve stood up, we want to award all their work and everything.”

If the Legislature agrees and passes Justice’s proposal, the 5 percent pay raise will start during fiscal year 2023 beginning next July. The approximate cost of the pay raise is $120 million.

“We’ve got to address our state employees,” Justice said. “We’re going to join hands together. We’re going to do an additional 5 percent for all state employees, and absolutely we’re going to stand united and try to get all of this passed.”

In addition, Justice said the state will give state workers a one-time payment to workers based on 2.5% of their pay, calling it an “inflation vaccine” or “inflat-o-cine.”

Justice hopes lawmakers will approve the one-time bonus quickly and get it out the door to employees in January. That brings the cost of the 5 percent raise and the 2.5 percent one-time bonus to between $160 million and $170 million.

Justice said the 2.5 percent one-time bonus is meant to help state employees as inflation causes prices of groceries, goods, utilities, and gasoline to rise. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, producer prices rose by 6.8 percent over the last 12 months.

“We’re going to do it as a one-time supplement to try to help them get through the situations they’re in right now today,” Justice said. “They’re contemplating Christmas dinner. They just got through Thanksgiving dinner. They’re contemplating how they’re going to fill their cars with gasoline with the inflated prices … we’re going to call it an inflat-o-cine that’s basically just an inflation vaccine.”

Justice was joined Thursday by Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, and House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay. All three committed to passing the 5 percent pay raise.

“All three of us and our members are out there fighting the fight to make a better life for the people of West Virginia. Our state employees are at the forefront of fighting that fight right along with us” Blair said. “We can do this. This pay raise that we’re proposing here along with the one-time bonus of 2.5 percent is a dividend being paid to our employees in the state.”

“It’s time to recognize when we have resources available to us to meet needs that have gone unmet perhaps for too long,” Hanshaw said. “We’re proud to say the House indicates support for the 5 percent pay raise for our public employees and school teachers. We know it’s been a stressful time over the course of the last two years.”

Leaders of the Democratic minority also came out in favor of the raise and bonus proposal. House Minority Leader Doug Skaff, D-Kanawha, and Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, released a joint statement Thursday afternoon also calling for an increase in retirement benefits for public employees as well.

“We look forward to passing legislation next session to improve the pay for thousands of workers across our state,” Skaff and Baldwin said. “We hope that these salary discussions are expanded to include much needed cost-of-living adjustments for retirees. It is important that we show our state employees, troopers, teachers and school service personnel that we value them and the work that they do.”

Justice pointed out that the pay raise was possible due to the record number of monthly tax collections coming into the state this fiscal year. West Virginia’s year-to-date tax collections for the first five months of fiscal year 2022, beginning on July 1, were more than $2 billion, 15.6 percent ahead of projections. The original estimate for July through November was $1.7 billion. November’s numbers give the state a surplus of $271.4 million.

“We’ve pumped out surpluses, and with those surpluses we want to reward our people,” Justice said. “We don’t want to be wasteful, but we do want to reward our people for a lot of great work they’ve done.”

The state is also sitting on more than $126 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security dollars that have to been allocated by the end of the month, otherwise the state would have to return those dollars to the federal government. The C.A.R.E.S. Act, first passed in March 2020, gave the state $1.25 billion. It was unclear whether the funding for the 2.5 percent bonus was coming from general revenue or C.A.R.E.S. money.

If passed, the 5 percent pay raise would be the third such state employee pay raise passed since Justice took office in 2017. Republican lawmakers attempted a 1 percent pay raise in 2018, but after a 10-day strike by teachers and school service personnel, lawmakers passed a 5 percent pay raise. Seeking to get ahead of the issue in 2019, Justice proposed another 5 percent raise for teachers and state employees, but Republicans tried to tie it to a massive education reform package causing a shorter strike before lawmakers passed the 5 percent pay raise.

(Adams can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)