SENATE BILL REPORT

                  SSB 5947

              As Passed Senate, February 8, 1996

Title:  An act relating to faculty salary increments for community and technical colleges.

Brief Description:  Providing a specific funding mechanism for making additional community and technical college faculty salary increment awards.

Sponsors:  Senate Committee on Ways & Means (originally sponsored by Senators Bauer, Kohl, Moyer, Palmer, Prince, Sheldon, Gaspard, Snyder, Drew, Sutherland and Winsley; by request of State Board for Community and Technical Colleges).

Brief History:

Committee Activity:  Ways & Means:  3/1/95, 3/3/95 [DPS]; 1/25/96 [DP].

Passed Senate, 3/9/95, 45-2; 2/8/96, 44-2.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON WAYS & MEANS

Majority Report:  Do pass.

  Signed by Senators Rinehart, Chair; Loveland, Vice Chair; Bauer, Drew, Finkbeiner, Fraser, Hargrove, Hochstatter, Johnson, Kohl, Long, McDonald, Pelz, Sheldon, Snyder, Spanel, Strannigan, Sutherland, West, Winsley and Wojahn.

Staff:  Michael Groesch (786-7715)

Background:  Salary increments are pay increases which are based on years of service and, in some pay systems, educational attainment. 

Classified employees within the state personnel system receive 5 percent increments for each year of service for a total of five steps for each position.  Classified employee increments are not funded by the Legislature with the assumption that employee turnover and other savings are sufficient to support the increases.  Classified staff in the K-12 system receive increments based on local collective bargaining agreements.  Increments are not funded through the state funding formula; turnover and other locally available sources are used for classified increment costs.

Certificated instructional staff in the K-12 system receive step increments for longevity and educational attainment which are funded through the state allocation system.  While the allocation formula is used for state funding purposes, salaries for certificated staff are negotiated at the local level through collective bargaining. However, approximately two-thirds of the school districts have adopted the state allocation schedule.

Faculty salaries in community colleges are negotiated through collective bargaining.  Sate law limits salary increases related to these agreements to the percentage established by the legislature in the appropriations act.  The law further states that the collective bargaining agreements are not binding upon future actions of the Legislature.  Because the increases are limited to specific appropriations, the use of turnover savings for salary increments is prohibited.  Consequently, increments have been foregone when no salary increases have been provided.  Subsequent salary increases were then obligated, by the local agreements,  to fund the deferred increments. As a result, there were periods when faculty no longer eligible for increments received little or no cost-of-living adjustments even though legislative appropriation was provided for salary increases.  This situation occurred in 1986 and 1987.

The Legislature has provided funds specifically for community college faculty increments in 1991, 1992 and 1994.  At these times language was included in the appropriations act which overrode the statutory provision prohibiting the use of turnover savings for faculty increments.

Faculty at Washington's public four-year institutions receive salary steps as the basis for performance increases or response to market conditions.  However, increments as used in the K-12 and community college systems are not integral to their policies nor funded by the Legislature in the institution's budget.

Summary of Bill:  The biennial budget submitted by the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges includes the cost to fund faculty increments calculated based on an estimate of turnover savings which may be applied to the cost.

It is the state intent of the Legislature that community college faculty increment costs, less turnover savings, be funded by legislative appropriation up to the amount of 1 1/2 percent of the faculty salary base.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Available.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  Increments for community college faculty have been funded in a haphazard manner resulting in unpredictability and equity issues between the salary schedules of the community college and K-12 systems.  Community college faculty pay for professional development themselves and increments are method of rewarding their investments and promoting quality instruction for the system.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:  Earl Hale, Director, State Board for Community and Technical Colleges; Terry Brown, CEO, Community Colleges of Spokane; Jeff Curtis; Doug Jensen; Nick Nickoloff; Wendry Rader-Konofalsk.