Governor recommends pay raise for teachers
Salary hike for jailers also urged
Gov. Phil Bryant is recommending a teacher pay raise, increased mental health and foster care funding and a raise for state jailers.
He’s also recommending no state agency face a budget cut, as they have often in recent years of lean revenue.
Bryant on Nov. 15 released his Executive Budget Recommendation for fiscal 2020. Lawmakers will take it under advisement, but will have the final say on a roughly $6 billion budget during their session that begins in January.
Bryant’s proposal includes a $50 million pay raise for school teachers spread over two years.
“This will be the second pay raise in five years,” Bryant wrote in his budget summary.
“Legislative leadership continues to advocate for our teachers, and I look forward to working with the Legislature on this new plan.”
Bryant also notes that Mississippi’s correctional officers are paid $4,000 less than the regional average, and he recommends spending $7 million to bring them in line with neighboring states, along with $1 million for workforce training for prisoners to help reduce recidivism. In recent legislative budget hearings, the Mississippi Department of Corrections asked for spending increases, including raises for guards, who start at $24,900 a year, to help with chronic understaffing, escapes and other problems.
Corrections Commissioner Pelicia Hall also told legislative budget leaders
that the agency has a $7.3 million deficit for the current budget year from “unpaid medical bills.”
Bryant recommends spending an additional $26 million on the state’s troubled foster care system, an effort to bring the state into compliance with federal court decrees.
Bryant said he is recommending a $1 million increase for the Department of Mental Health for more communitybased services.
“A topic that we often do not discuss except in times of tragedy is mental health,” Bryant said.
Bryant said state coffers finished fiscal 2018 with a $124 million surplus and banked $118 million of that in reserve accounts. His budget would bank another $116 million, bringing “rainy day” savings to more than $400 million. Revenue this year is projected to increase by 2.6 percent “and we have record amounts in the state’s cash reserves” Bryant said.
“Because of this growth, in fiscal year 2020, I recommend to the Legislature that it cut no agency’s budget and that we make investments in agencies and programs that will lead to long-term prosperity in Mississippi.”