State employees sent a deluge of comments asking lawmakers for higher pay to address high turnover and rising costs of living. The Change in Employee Compensation Committee on Dec. 20 received an overview of the more than 1,700 responses seeking comment as the group prepares to make a recommendation to the state’s budget writers. Human Resources Administrator Janelle White told members she recommends a 4% increase to employee salaries or a $1.25 an hour increase, with discretion given to agencies to decide to implement either the percentage increase or dollar amount. She recommended a 5.5% increase for IT/engineering employees, which has a turnover rate of nearly 26%. “When employees leave the state it has a profound and lasting impact on the bottom line in our ability to deliver services,” White said. “The hidden cost of turnover is frequently overlooked yet its consequences are very costly to the state.” Statewide, the average turnover rate was around 19% last year, White said. She estimated that it cost roughly $301 million to replace 19.2% of Idaho’s state employee workforce. In 2023, White presented the committee a report detailing how far behind Idaho’s compensation was in comparison to the public and private sector and recommended greater increases for public safety, IT/engineering, and nursing and health care staff pay. White recommended last week that lawmakers implement the IT/engineering salary structure improvement this coming session. She said that the average market salary for these positions is around $36,000 a year more than the average state salary. Primary state employees who don’t fall into specialized categories fall about $22,250 behind the average market salary. In fiscal year 2024, Idaho spent about 21% of the state budget on personnel at around $1.9 billion; the recommendation White provided would bring this to about $2.3 billion, she said. Alberto Gonzalez, head of the Office of Information Technology Services, told the committee that state IT employees created the “backbone of our cybersecurity infrastructure.” “I think not investing increases our chance of cyber attack,” he said. Idaho State Police Director Col. Bill Gardiner told lawmakers that several regions in the state faced particularly high turnover and vacancy rates, such as near Lewiston. The district has eight vacant patrol positions, which leaves 13 current troopers patrolling a 13,000-square-mile area, he said. Most of the public comment the committee received came from Idaho Transportation Department staff, with close to 350 respondents, as well as more than 150 responses each from Idaho State Police, the Department of Health and Welfare, and Boise State University. Many of the comments from ITD employees focused on high turnover and its impact on the workload of remaining employees, cost of living, and the safety concerns of working near high-speed traffic. One Idaho Falls-based employee said their compensation of $25.12 an hour allows them to “meet basic living expenses,” but it “is increasingly inadequate to keep pace with the growing costs of housing, fuel and groceries.” The employee also underscored the risk of working near traffic traveling 80 mph. A North Idaho state trooper who’s been with the agency for 15 years said they have seen the housing market skyrocket and the impact that has had on recruitment and retention in the area. “I’ve observed Troopers work long shifts covering crashes, arrests, pursuits, and other heinous acts which changes a person’s life, only to return to their small camper parked on someone else’s property because that’s all they could afford based off the provided wage,” the trooper wrote. The longtime officer asked lawmakers to consider existing employees when changing the structure to avoid pay compression — in which new hires in a competitive market end up making more than, or nearly as much as, longstanding employees. The state’s retirement and health plans are often touted as a recruitment tool, but aren’t as highly regarded, comments indicated. “While benefits are valued, employees feel they no longer sufficiently offset the low wages or the competitive advantage compared to private sector jobs,” legislative Budget and Policy Analyst Frances Lippitt said. Costs related to inflation came up on 381 of the responses, Lippitt said. A number of emailed comments mentioned the approximately $5,000 pay bump for legislators recommended by the Citizens’ Committee on Legislative Compensation in November, the Idaho Capital Sun reported. The citizens’ committee does not include legislators, but the Legislature may reject or reduce the recommended rates by concurrent resolution. “I advocate that all state employees get paid appropriately, to meet the cost of living,” one health department employee wrote. “... I also assert that if the state legislature wants a raise, that the same raise should apply to every state employee. Otherwise, if the legislators truly want to be leaders, they have no right to a raise until state staff meet the cost of living.” The committee did not make a decision and is scheduled to meet again Jan. 7 and Jan. 9.
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President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a "political resolution" to the issue. The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by Jan. 19 while the government emphasized its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk. "President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act's deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case," said Trump's amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case and was written by D. John Sauer, Trump's choice for solicitor general. The argument submitted to the court is the latest example of Trump inserting himself in national issues before he takes office. The Republican president-elect has already begun negotiating with other countries over his plans to impose tariffs, and he intervened earlier this month in a plan to fund the federal government, calling for a bipartisan plan to be rejected and sending Republicans back to the negotiating table. Trump has also reversed his position on the popular app, having tried to ban it during his first term in office over national security concerns. He joined the app during his 2024 presidential campaign and his team used it to connect with younger voters, especially male voters, by pushing content that was often macho and aimed at going viral. He said earlier this year that he still believed there were national security risks with TikTok, but that he opposed banning it. This month, Trump also met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. The filings Friday come ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Jan. 10 on whether the law, which requires TikTok to divest from its China-based parent company or face a ban, unlawfully restricts speech in violation of the First Amendment. The law was was signed by President Joe Biden in April after it passed Congress with broad bipartisan support. TikTok and ByteDance filed a legal challenge afterwards. Earlier this month, a panel of three federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the statute, leading TikTok to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. The brief from Trump said he opposes banning TikTok at this junction and "seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office." In their brief to the Supreme Court on Friday, attorneys for TikTok and its parent company ByteDance argued the federal appeals court erred in its ruling and based its decision on "alleged 'risks' that China could exercise control" over TikTok's U.S. platform by pressuring its foreign affiliates. The Biden administration has argued in court that TikTok poses a national security risk due to its connections to China. Officials say Chinese authorities can compel ByteDance to hand over information on TikTok's U.S. patrons or use the platform to spread or suppress information. But the government "concedes that it has no evidence China has ever attempted to do so," TikTok's legal filing said, adding that the U.S. fears are predicated on future risks. In its filing Friday, the Biden administration said because TikTok "is integrated with ByteDance and relies on its propriety engine developed and maintained in China," its corporate structure carries with it risk. Copyright 2024 NPR