ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 14, 1996 TAG: 9611140065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Gov. George Allen has weighed in on the side of opponents, including Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg, of a new pay plan that would have delayed checks to the state's some 100,000 employees next year.
Shuler and Del. George Grayson, D-Williamsburg, had planned to introduce emergency legislation to repeal the so-called "lag pay" plan passed near the close of the 1996 General Assembly.
Now, Allen has sent a letter received Saturday by most state employees saying the new payroll system should not be implemented as planned.
Instead, he will introduce emergency legislation at the start of the 1997 General Assembly substituting a plan to pay state employees every other Friday. Pay will still come after work is performed, as in the controversial lag pay plan, but a transition payment equal to three work days will be added when the changeover occurs in mid-1997 to make sure the change is not disruptive, Allen wrote.
"While I have read the general thrust of the governor's plan to use a biweekly pay schedule," Shuler said Tuesday, "I have not seen the details of the legislation, so I will withhold my initial judgment. I do hope the state employees in my district will consider this plan and let me know their assessment of the governor's proposal."
Shuler's district includes thousands of state employees at Virginia Tech and Radford University. The New River Valley as a whole has one of the highest concentrations of state employees as a segment of the local economy outside of Richmond.
The "lag pay" plan would have delayed checks so that state employees would get only 23 twice-a-month checks instead of the customary 24 checks during 1997. The idea was to generate cost savings to help pay for a 4.35 percent cost-of-living pay increase effective next month.
John Bennett, staff director for the Senate Finance Committee, estimated earlier that the lag pay plan would save the state about $75 million in 1997, but state pay raises will take $140 million.
Under Allen's new plan, state employees would actually see more checks than they do now. Because two months of each year have three Fridays, they would get 26 checks per year once the plan is fully implemented. The amounts would be slightly smaller so annual gross pay would stay the same.
The traditional twice-a-month paychecks would continue through June. The last one, covering the last half of June, would come July 1. At that time, employees also would get the three-day transition payment, which would slightly increase each employee's take-home pay for 1997.
The new biweekly plan would start with paychecks received July 18, covering work performed from June 30 through July 11. That also would be the start of paychecks on alternating Fridays.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB