THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 29, 1996 TAG: 9604270024
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 29 lines
I am a state employee writing to make known my feelings about that part of the ``budget'' that is taking a pay period away from us in 1997. The biennium raise of 6.75 percent seemingly is somehow supposed to gloss over the loss of the pay period.
The General Assembly customarily votes us a 2.25 percent raise each year, so the only possible redeeming quality of this whole mess is a remaining 2.25 percent increase to be realized over the long term of the biennium. But we will not fully recover our losses until we leave the service of the state, at which time we will be compensated for the ``lost'' pay period.
It will take 1998 to recover from 1997. The state can keep its glorified 2.25 percent biennium increase. I want my yearly raise and my pay period back. Even the suggested ``bonus'' plan equal to one pay period would have been more palatable than what we've got.
JUANITA K. BAILEY
Chesapeake, April 20, 1996 by CNB