The chairman of the House Appropriations Chairman said Tuesday that he’s concerned about Gov. Rick Scott’s recommendations on pay for state employees. In his budget proposal for the spending year that begins July 1, released last week, Scott calls for a $1,200 bonus for state employees with a satisfactory evaluation or a better, and a chance for more for those with better evaluations; a separate bonus to Department of Corrections employees because of a drop in the recidivism rate; and a $2,500-a-year raise for teachers. That drew a question from Appropriations Chairman Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, when the governor’s budget director appeared before the committee Tuesday.
“The governor’s proposal seems to treat different employees differently, and we have some consternation about that as it relates to teachers being treated differently than corrections officers being treated differently than other state employees,” McKeel said.
Jerry McDaniel, the budget director, said Scott gave the bonus to corrections employees because of the recidivism numbers. “The governor is a measurement governor, as you know,” McDaniel said. “He asks us at every turn, ‘Does it have a return on investment?'”
McDaniel also said that principals were beginning to get enough information to decide which teachers should be retained through the state’s accountability system, but that the information needed to evaluate state employees wasn’t available yet. McKeel said the committee will likely look at whether teachers should have their pay decided by performance and whether a general raise for state employees might be needed after six years without one. “We should look at all of those things,” he said.
