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F I S C A L    I M P A C T    R E P O R T

 

 

 

SPONSOR

Rainaldi

DATE TYPED

01/31/04

HB

 

 

SHORT TITLE

Motor Transportation Employee Pay Increase

SB

224

 

 

ANALYST

Valenzuela

 

APPROPRIATION

 

Appropriation Contained

Estimated Additional Impact

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY04

FY05

FY04

FY05

 

$355.0

 

 

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

 

 

Relates to Senate Bill 6, which provides pay increases for State Police officers

 

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

 

LFC Files: Presentation to the LFC by State Police Chief Maldonado, Compensation Study for the Department of Public Safety, December 5, 2003.

 

Responses Received From

Department of Public Safety

 

SUMMARY

 

Synopsis of Bill

 

Senate Bill 224 appropriates $355 thousand from the general fund to the Motor Transportation Division (MTD) of the Department of Public Safety (DPS) for the purpose of a six percent annual salary increase.

 

Significant Issues

 

The appropriation in SB224 would assist the MTD in achieving greater parity with its in-state and out-of-state law enforcement counterparts. The following graphic illustrates the pay difference of DPS law enforcement with surrounding states. MTD has the lowest annual salary in the comparison. (Note: this graphic compares minimum annual salary for patrolman only).

 

 

 

 

 

DPS completed a compensation study for all of its law enforcement divisions. The study, based on annual salary, demonstrated that DPS ranked relatively low to surrounding states. Senate Bill 6 addresses the disparity that exists with State Police and its counterparts in other states. The low salary has contributed to a higher-than-normal turnover rate at both State Police and MTD. The turnover rate at MTD has been particularly chronic, reaching 32.4 percent in calendar year 2003, as shown below. MTD authorized force is 136 positions, State Police is 605 positions.

 

Turnover Rates and Reason for Leaving

 

Calendar 2001

Calendar 2002

Calendar 2003

 

State Police

MTD

State Police

MTD

State Police

 MTD

  To another agency

         14

           6

        14

       11

          18

          14

  Personal decision

         10

           1

          7

         1

            7

            5

  Lieu of term

           2

           -

          3

          -

            4

             -

  Termination

            -

           -

          2

        1

            4

            4

  Retirement

         17

         12

        14

       12

          20

          21

  Deceased

           5

           -

          1

          -

             -

             -

 

         48

         19

        41

       25

          53

          44

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Percent of force

7.9%

14.0%

6.8%

18.4%

8.8%

32.4%

 

 

 

 

This bill would begin to assist MTD in addressing salary disparity. The following table shows that MTD would need approximately $1.1 million to adjust salaries to a level commensurate with surrounding states, which reflects on average a 24.23 percent increase over current salaries.

 

 

Parity in Salary Structure

Motor Transportation Division

Rank

Current

Proposed

Proposed/Current

Difference

Avg % Incr

Patrolman

       $ 2,954,917

        $ 3,603,459

             $ 648,542

21.95%

Sergeant

          830,995

        1,096,533

              265,538

31.95%

Lieutenant

          297,495

           403,340

              105,845

35.58%

Captain

          201,528

           244,858

               43,330

21.50%

Chief's

          138,358

           146,936

                 8,578

6.20%

 

     $  4,423,293

      $  5,495,126

         $ 1,071,833

24.23%

 

 

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

 

The appropriation of $355 dollars contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY05 shall revert to the general fund.

 

As currently recommended by the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, the General Appropriation Act would provide for a two percent salary increase for MTD.

 

MFV/dm