By Chancen Flick
This week at the Capitol saw the end of another deadline. Thursday was the deadline for House Bills to have passed Senate Committees and Senate Bills to have passed House Committees. The exceptions to this deadline are Senate Bills assigned to the House Appropriations & Budget Committee which has it’s deadline next Thursday. This led to several very long hearings as legislators rushed to ensure that their bills would be eligible to continue further through the legislative session. OPEA managed to advance many of our priority bills which are listed below.
As we draw closer to the month of May, budget negotiations have begun. OPEA is working to ensure that state employees are not forgotten in the process. We have recently released information from the 2023 Compensation study and have begun stressing to executive and legislative leaders the need for market-based salary adjustments and a return to the defined benefit retirement system. Please keep an eye on our calls to action and social media feeds for more information regarding these issues, and other priority legislative goals.
If you have any questions related to legislation, please contact Chancen Flick at chancenf@opea.org
HB 1396 | Hasenbeck, Toni(R) Floyd, Kay(D) |
Provides for an increase in to court reporter compensation and maximum salary and permits the Director of the Courts to use available funds for the acquisition and maintenance of court reporter equipment. |
HB 1794 | Osburn, Mike(R) Pugh, Adam(R) |
Specifies the responsibilities of the Human Capital Management Administrator within the Civil Service and Human Capital Modernization Act. |
HB 1796 | Osburn, Mike(R) Seifried, Ally (F)(R) |
Authorizes the Dept. of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services to enter into agreements to serve as a vendor with public sector employers wishing to offer employment assistance programs and services. |
HB 1798 | Osburn, Mike(R) Thompson, Roger(R) |
Establishes a system to gradually increase state employee pay to the level of 90 percent of comparable private sector positions by 2026 and maintain that threshold moving forward. |
HB 2026 | Wolfley, Max(R) Pemberton, Dewayne(R) |
Requires the Office of Management and Enterprise Services to provide an association representing state employees with a monthly reconciliation report with information related to opted in members. |
HB 2171 | Hilbert, Kyle(R) Montgomery, John(R) |
Provides for a conditional one-time retirement benefits increase for various state retirement systems for beneficiaries who have been retired for more than two years; EMERGENCY. |
HB 2376 | Kannady, Chris(R) Hall, Chuck(R) |
Adjusts provisions related to state employee benefits, providing a maximum of 640 hours of carryover leave and clarifying services which qualify for inclusion in benefits calculations; EMERGENCY. |
SB 193 | Garvin, Jessica (F)(R) Archer, Nick (F)(R) |
Provides for 6 weeks of paid maternal leave for state employees upon the birth or adoption of a child. |