West Virginia state employees may get a boost in their paychecks next year if the governor gets his way.
At a Thursday press conference, Gov. Patrick Morrisey made a string of announcements including his legislative agenda and water and sewer grants, but the thing he emphasized most was a state employee pay raise.
Earlier in the week, the Republican House leadership laid out a series of priorities for the coming legislative session in January. That includes a pay raise for teachers. Morrisey took that further.
“We will have a pay raise for state employees. Period,” he said. “That’s going to include so many of the people who are working hard every day to make West Virginia a better place to live, to work and to play.”
The pay raises proposed by Morrisey will apply to state employees who are funded through the general revenue budget, which includes the vast majority of state workers. This category covers teachers, State Police, corrections officers and many other essential public servants.
Morrisey’s proposed pay raise will also address critical vacancies in areas such as Corrections, Child Protective Services and Education.
“Our state employees are the ones who teach our children, fix our roads and bridges, guard our prisons, police our streets, and administer the programs thousands of West Virginians rely on,” he said. “They enter public service not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of our people. They deserve to share in the positive results of our fiscal progress.”
Any pay raise proposal will have to make it through the budgeting process during the 60-day legislative session beginning Jan. 14.
