STATE: SALARIES NOT PART OF PROP B

Southeast Missouri State University officials have suggested Proposition B could be used to help fund salary hikes for university employees, a claim state education officials refute.

At a Board of Regents meeting in August, university officials indicated that Southeast Missouri State University employees could receive 13 percent pay raises next year if voters in November approve Proposition B, the tax-and-reform measure for education.

The university administration and the regents have stated that they would like to use Proposition B funds to hike across-the-board the salaries and benefits of university employees. University employees received no general pay raises this year.

University officials have said that higher salaries is a top priority for funding next fiscal year.

Faculty members also have linked Proposition B with salary increases. Allen Gathman, Faculty Senate chairman, said last month that he sees no possibility of a salary increase if voters don't approve the tax-and-reform measure.

But Charles McClain, Missouri's higher education commissioner, and Mickey Brown of Springfield, chairman of the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education, said Proposition B is not designed to fund salary hikes on college campuses.

They said the money could be used to fund new or expanded programs, which could involve salaries for needed personnel, but not to provide across-the-board pay raises for university faculty and staff.

"Proposition B does not contain anything in there that relates to pay raises," said Brown. "There is no intent, nor are there any funds built into that for pay raises."

McClain agreed. "It's not provided for in Proposition B."

He said that while general-revenue funding of higher education could and should be used for faculty salaries, Proposition B is "not a faculty-salary driven type of issue."

He added, "An unemployed person is not interested in giving a faculty member another $5,000 a year."

McClain said that if approved by voters, Proposition B won't be used for such pay raises. "We are determined that will not be the case," he said. "We made that commitment to the governor and the General Assembly."

Under the education measure, universities basically would have to submit requests to the coordinating board for funding from Proposition B taxes.

Brown said the tax-and-reform measure would provide added funding for higher education, which could free up some of the general budget revenue for salary increases.

But he said he doesn't expect the coordinating board to approve any Proposition B money for across-the-board pay raises on college campuses.

Brown said the coordinating board will look at allocating Proposition B funds for new and expanded programs. "I don't consider that across the board (salaries)."

State education officials suggested that voters won't support any tax measure that is linked to increased salaries for educators.

"I think Proposition B as it stands now is going to be tough to pass anyway," said Brown. "The general public says, `You know, we give you money after money after money, year in and year out, and we don't see any improvement in education.'"

Brown said Proposition B would give increased authority to the coordinating board. "I like it," he said, "because I think this is the only way we are going to eliminate a lot of educational duplication going on in this state."

The coordinating board chairman said that he doesn't believe voters will authorize any future funding for education above the level provided by Proposition B.

Proposition B would initially provide $190 million for elementary and secondary schools and an equal amount for higher education.

"I think education is going to be on the line," said Brown. "I don't think they will ever be able to go back to the well again."

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, acknowledged that Proposition B doesn't earmark any money specifically for salary increases.

But he said, "I see nothing in it that would prevent an institution from making a case that in order to enhance its mission, it must at least be able to maintain a competitive level of quality in attracting faculty and staff and maintaining current faculty."

He added, "I certainly don't want to argue with the commissioner."

Still, he said, "the assumption has been that the quality enhancement in education of any kind depends on the quality of personnel you have."

But Wallhausen said, "I think it's a mistake to put all of the salary increase on Proposition B. The intention would be that compensation would come from both sources."

Wallhausen said that it's hard to divorce salaries from the education-funding picture. "There is nothing that says you are going to spend any money on salaries, but it is, I think, generally assumed that some of the adjustments that would have to be made would have to be in that area."

With tight state finances, he said, Proposition B is vital for increased funding for education in all areas, including salaries.

"With Proposition B," he said, "there is a possibility that (salary hikes) will happen. Without it, there is almost no possibility that there would be the amount of revenue needed to get salaries to a competitive level."