June 21, 2024

by Michael R. Wickline | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

The Arkansas Legislative Council on Friday authorized nearly 480 state employees to receive merit pay raises and their resulting salaries to exceed their positions’ maximum-authorized salaries in fiscal year 2025 that starts July 1.

These employees include Arkansas PBS CEO Courtney Pledger, whose anticipated new salary is $190,961.86 a year, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Her current salary is $179,999.87, according to the Arkansas Transparency website.

The position’s new maximum-authorized salary will be $172,810 a year in fiscal 2025, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

Arkansas Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro — who has been a sharp critic of Pledger and persuaded state lawmakers to block a merit pay raise for Pledger a year ago amid a legislative audit of Arkansas PBS — said Friday in an interview that he is OK with the raise granted to Pledger because Arkansas PBS has made some significant changes such as using producers and actors in Arkansas to “grow our own.”

The Arkansas Senate on Wednesday voted to confirm Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ appointment last month of Maria Sullivan, who is Dan Sullivan’s wife, to the Arkansas Educational Television Commission, which oversees Arkansas PBS. Sullivan abstained from the Senate’s vote to confirm his wife’s appointment.

No state lawmaker publicly objected to authorizing any of the 478 state employees to receive merit raises and for their resulting salaries to exceed their positions’ maximum-authorized salaries during the Legislative Council’s Personnel Subcommittee meeting Monday or the Legislative Council meeting Friday.

Pledger’s increased salary is a combination of a 3% “market adjustment” pay raise granted to all state government executive branch employees and a merit raise, said Brooke Hollowoa, a spokesperson for the state Department of Transformation and Shared Services.

Last week, Sanders announced she authorized the one-time 3% market adjustment pay increase that will go into effect Sunday, along with a 1% base salary merit raise for executive branch employees who have met expectations in their recent performance evaluations, and a 3% base salary merit raise for those employees who have exceeded expectations that will go into effect July 7.

Under Act 172 of 2024 — which authorized executive branch employees to receive a market adjustment to their base salary up to 3% only for fiscal 2025 — “a market adjustment under this section may be awarded to an employee whether or not the market adjustment would result in the salary for the employee exceeding the maximum pay level for the grade assigned to the employee’s classification.”

Leslie Fisken, secretary of the state Department of Transformation and Shared Services, asked Legislative Council Personnel Subcommittee co-Chairs Sen. Breanne Davis, R-Russellville, and Rep. Mark Berry, R-Ozark, in a letter dated Monday for state lawmakers to approve eligible state employees to receive their merit increase added to their base salary and the resulting salary to exceed the maximum pay level of their grade under Arkansas Code Annotated 21-5-1101 (d).

The state Office of Personnel Management determined the effective date for eligible employees to receive their merit increase is July 7 and this “request for approval requires immediate action and is necessary to ensure timely and consistent implementation of merit increases for all eligible state employees,” Fisken wrote in her letter.

Asked whether these raises are in line with the governor’s repeated aim of stopping the spiraling growth of government, Sanders spokesperson Alexa Henning said Friday in a written statement: “Any funding needed for merit raises to ensure the state can recruit and retain top talent was included in the Governor’s budget, which slowed the growth of government spending to only 1.76% — far below the 3% annual growth Arkansas has averaged in recent years.

“The Governor is delivering on her promise to cut costs while investing in key priorities and improving services through initiatives like Arkansas Forward,” Henning said.

Read full article HERE.