Senate Budget Bill Adversely Impacts Law Enforcement and Corrections.

Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee, chaired by Senator Russell Pearce, proposed the Senate version of a budget intended to address a $3 billion shortfall in 2010.

The Senate version of the 2010 budget, like the House version, includes the proposal to increase PSPRS, CORP and EORP contribution rates by as much as 1.93%.  Almost all Arizona police officers will lose 1.93% of compensation and Corrections Officers may also be impacted by about 0.8% of pay.

Before and during the committee hearing, myself and John Ortolano, State FOP Vice President, met with Senator Russell Pearce to discuss the employee contribution rate increase. Senator Pearce said that he would be willing to introduce a floor amendment to remove the contribution rate increase from the Senate budget proposal. We told Senator Pearce that we appreciated his willingness to work with us.

The Senate Version includes a new provision which will not allow Dispatchers to join CORP after October 1, 2009.  We strongly oppose this concept because the change has nothing to do with the budget, it is simply a philosophical opinion of a few in the legislature that dispatchers don't belong in CORP. We disagree.

The big debate is privatization of three prisons; Yuma, Perryville and the Eyman prison complexes. It is very apparent that the privatization plan is not fully formed.  The Chairman recognized that the plan is a "work in progress" and admitted that more work needs to be done on the idea.  Director Ryan representing the Department of Corrections, scored big points during testimony expressing his perspective that such a big budget decrease would compromise staff safety.  The FOP does not support privatization and will strongly oppose such a large personnel funding cut.

The AG's Office will also take an abnormally large personnel budget cut. It is our opinion, the Agents in the AG's Office are yet again unfairly falling victim to partisan politics.  It does not appear to us that the funding reallocations described in the Senate budget bills will make up for the budget cuts imposed on the AG's Office.  The FOP will oppose any further cuts which would impact the Agents employed by the AG's Office.

Another new issue in the Senate is removing "third party" compensation from being included in PSPRS retirement calculations - even if the pay goes through the employer.  Obviously, this provision is intended to prevent officers from working off duty jobs and having those salaries count toward retirement. The language in the bill is badly drafted because it would also impact a wider range of "third party reimbursements" for law enforcement salaries.

Another provision in the budget bills is especially bad for our members.  The sweep of Development Fees and Vehicle License Taxes to support the State general fund, if passed, will create an even deeper financial crisis for the cities and counties.  The result will most likely cause even greater cuts to public safety than have been contemplated. We are strongly opposed to these fund sweeps.

As expected, the Senate budget vote in the Appropriations Committee was along partisan lines.  Frankly the outcome was pre-determined and testimony was not expected to have any real impact on the vote.

Prior to the committee hearing we had the opportunity to meet with the appropriate Senators and communicated our concerns.  We decided not to engage in testimony during the committee hearing because this particular committee used the hearing to engage in public posturing rather than move toward a positive outcome - and the outcome was pre-determined anyway.  We believe our strategy was appropriate because we have promises that some members of the Senate and House will work with us to amend the language of several portions of the bill should it come to a vote on the Senate Floor and move to the House.

It is the opinion of many that the Senate will have difficulty garnering the required 16 votes to pass the Senate proposal to the House.  Regardless, we must consider the Senate budget proposal adverse to our interests and we will continue to strongly oppose many of its provisions.

Fraternally,
 
Jim Mann, Executive Director
Fraternal Order of Police
Arizona Labor Council
jcmann@fop.net