STATE SHOULD FIND MONEY FOR PAY RAISES

Citing a tight state budget, Gov. Bob Holden made it clear early on in the budget process that most of Missouri's 62,000 workers shouldn't expect a pay raise next fiscal year.

Any hope for raises appeared to have faded last week when the chairman of the Senate Appropriations committee, John Russell, announced they simply aren't possible.

Some senators earlier had suggested that they would try to provide up to a $600 annual pay raise. But even one of the supporters, Democrat Wayne Goode of Normandy, began backing away from that possibility after the Senate Appropriations Committee worked on the budget last week.

The Senate committee is still working on a budget package that would fund state government in the amount of $18.5 billion for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Neither Holden nor the House, which already has approved a budget package, included any money for an across-the-board employee pay raise.

The version of the budget passed by the House included raises only for a few thousand of the state's lowest paid workers, mostly custodians, laundry attendants, housekeepers in psychiatric hospitals and veterans homes and caretakers of the mentally and developmentally disabled.

There is, however, a good possibility that the workers will get help with their rising health-insurance premiums. The Senate committee decided to provide an additional $11 million to the Missouri Consolidated Health Care Plan, which negotiates contracts with health maintenance organizations on behalf of state employees and participating municipal and education groups. The extra money, said Russell, would bring the state's contribution to $218 million for the next fiscal year and could avoid a premium increase.

Several hundred state employees this month rallied at the Capitol for a pay raise, health-insurance help and better working conditions. Members of the Missouri State Workers Union said at the time they want a $2,400 raise. That appears out of the question because the state says it can't even come up with $25.2 million to fund the $600 raise.

A raise for state workers does not seem out of reason any more than an annual raise for workers in private industry, which is customary. Considering the fiscal 2002 budget will total $18.5 billion, state officials could find the money if they really wanted to simply by cutting less vital expenditures elsewhere or by reducing the state work force, or a combination of both.

Making employees of the state suffer because of skyrocketing state spending hardly seems fair.