Sanders support lacking for state pay overhaul bill
Department secretary told to redo compensation plan
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will not support a broad-based pay plan increase in state government’s employee classification and compensation bill, she announced Wednesday afternoon.
In a letter to state Transformation and Shared Services Secretary Joseph Wood, Sanders wrote that Arkansas taxpayers should not be saddled with the $80 million price tag for such a proposal that doesn’t consider the strategic needs in education, public safety, health care and corrections.
“Today, I am directing the Department of Transformation and Shared Services to review and rework the existing classification and compensation structure of the state,” the Republican governor wrote in her letter.
“Arkansas should not have more state employees per capita than all our surrounding states,” Sanders said. “It’s long past time to reduce the size and scope of government, identify efficiencies, and responsibly phase out the income tax.”
In November, former Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson proposed setting aside $41 million in the state’s general revenue budget for fiscal 2024 that begins July 1, for a new pay plan for state agency employees. That plan covered about 22,400 executive branch employees.
“My pay plan recommendation would make state employee salaries more comparable to the private sector so we can recruit and retain top talent,” Hutchinson said at that time.
State government last overhauled its pay plan in 2017. That plan was projected to cover 25,000 full-time state workers and cost about $57 million to implement in fiscal 2018, including about $24 million from general revenue, with the remainder coming from other revenue sources.
The number of full-time state employees increased by 108 in fiscal year 2022 that ended June 30, 2022, to slightly more than 57,000 as their ranks grew at the state’s higher education institutions and declined at state agencies, according to Bureau of
Legislative Research records. The slight uptick fiscal 2022 came on the heels of a 1,674 full-time employee drop in fiscal 2021.
The 1,674-employee decline under Hutchinson was the largest drop over a fiscal year since Act 110 of 1985 started requiring agencies and higher education institutions to report employment. The largest previous decline was 754 employees in fiscal 2018, also under Hutchinson.
According to the state Department of Finance and Administration, state government’s total salary and benefits costs were $4.554 billion in fiscal 2022 — up from $4.222 billion in fiscal year 2021 that the agency reported a year ago.
Sanders released her letter to Wood several hours after a handful of state lawmakers criticized state Game and Fish Commission officials earlier Wednesday for proposed increases in the maximum authorized salaries for the commission’s highest-ranking employees as part of its proposed pay plan overhaul.
The Game and Fish Commission is constitutionally independent from the executive branch, though governors appoint Game and Fish commissioners.
Sanders said she is directing executive branch departments through her executive order in January to lower overall staffing levels, “but I want to empower my departments to be innovative in restructuring and changing the system from within.
“My end goal is to be responsible to Arkansans by ensuring their dollars are being used efficiently and effectively, and that citizens are receiving the level of service and attention needed from these departments,” Sanders said. “The Office of Personnel Management is directed to work with each department to produce a strategic plan to accomplish a reduction in overall staffing, while staying within the existing appropriation of each agency.”
By the end of this calendar year, the Office of Personnel Management will provide the governor’s office with a report of the changes needed to accomplish these three goals, she said.
“I will then determine the next steps to work with the General Assembly to make an impactful change on our personnel system,” Sanders said.
She said she has been clear that her goal is to look for ways to “boldly reform state government to be more responsive and responsible to the taxpayers of our great state,” and one of the largest costs for any department is personnel.
“There are many good and hard-working Arkansans that are employed by the state to perform essential services and help their fellow citizens,” Sanders said. “These public servants should be compensated and rewarded through a system based on merit and accomplishment, not solely on years of service.”
Pay raises granted in the executive branch are largely based on merit.
GAME AND FISH PAY OVERHAUL
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission officials made a pitch for their proposed overhaul of the commission’s employee pay plan for fiscal 2024 to the Joint Budget Committee’s personnel subcommittee Wednesday morning.
Commission Director Austin Booth said in a letter to the Joint Budget Committee’s leaders that the commission’s proposed amendment to Senate Bill 15 would modernize the commission’s classification and compensation system for its employees while staying within its currently authorized salary appropriation and authorized positions.
A firm that the commission contracted with found the commission’s total overall compensation was 19.1% “below our competitive market,” he wrote, and the commission used that information to propose a salary structure that brings its compensation more in line with “our competitive market.”
The commission has not made major substantive updates to its positions or its classification and compensation plan in more than six years, Booth said.
“By reclassifying positions, updating salary ranges based on market data, and utilizing pools of position classifications, AGFC will be better equipped for challenges ahead while still maintaining current position numbers,” he wrote in his letter.
But several state lawmakers zeroed in on the commission’s proposal to raise the maximum authorized salary of the commission’s director from $152,638 to $277,100 a year, of the commission’s chief of staff from $124,275 to $195,131 a year, and the commission’s deputy directors from $122,957 to $182,250 a year.
Booth’s salary is $145,706 a year, while commission chief of state Chris Lacey’s salary is $116,200 a year, according to the Arkansas Transparency website. The website shows that commission deputy directors Benjamin Batten and Bradley Carner’s salaries are $100,139 a year each, and deputy director Spencer Griffin’s salary is $100,076 a year.
State Rep. Jim Wooten, R-Beebe, questioned whether the commission is recommending paying the commission’s director $277,100 a year.
Commission Chairman Bobby Martin responded, “We are not setting any salary today.”
“This is only the range cap,” he said.
Martin said the commission’s director is paid $22,000 a year less than the lowest-paid state department secretary, and the commission wants to pay competitive salaries to recruit and retain its employees.
The commission will decide on a salary adjustment for the director at a later time, he said.
State Rep. Howard Beaty, R-Crossett, said he would like more information about what the commission wants to do for its rank and file employees.
Booth said, “We would absolutely love to provide you with some of our thoughts and our plans around implementation” of the commission’s proposed pay plan overhaul.
In fiscal 2022 that ended June 30,2022, “we intentionally gave a pay increase to the bottom third and the middle third before we gave it to the top third,” he said.
In lieu of the commission’s proposal, state Sen. Ron Caldwell, R-Wynne, proposed increasing the maximum authorized salaries for the commission’s director from $152,638 to $201,700 a year, the chief of staff from $124,275 to $181,500 a year, and the commission’s deputy directors from $122,957 to $167,000 a year. The personal subcommittee took no action on the commission’s proposal or Caldwell’s proposal Wednesday.
Martin said he believes the agency’s commissioners would accept the proposal.
Afterward, commission spokesman Keith Stephens said the Game and Fish Commission director is paid $134,378 a year in Louisiana, $147,216 in Mississippi, $150,381 in Oklahoma, $178,968 in Tennessee, $210,000 in Missouri and $215,412 in Texas.
The proposed maximum authorized salary for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission director also included analysis of non-governmental organizations, such as Ducks Unlimited, NWTF and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, he said.
Asked about what happened to the discussions about the commission asking state lawmakers to raise fees in this year’s regular session, Stephens said in a written statement that “Arkansas Game and Fish has a demonstrable long-term revenue problem, largely attributable to resident license revenue, and AGFC will continue to offer longterm solutions when appropriate to avoid a cash shortfall.
“In the case of this biennial request, continued historic growth in the Conservation Sales Fund led us to reconsider increasing resident license fees,” he said.” Instead, AGFC will continue to prioritize improving habitat, modernizing infrastructure, and reducing cash balances.”