SLS 16RS-2663 ORIGINAL
2016 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 121
BY SENATOR MARTINY
SENATE. To urge and request the governor to reconsider pay raise freezes.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To urge and request the governor to reconsider the request to the Civil Service Commission
3 to suspend the annual "performance adjustments" for Fiscal Year 2016-2017 for
4 eligible employees within the nearly 40,000 classified employee workforce.
5 WHEREAS, the governor recently was reported in the media as indicating that the
6 state should eliminate performance adjustments for state workers in the Fiscal Year 2016-
7 2017 because the state cannot afford them and that Commissioner of Administration Jay
8 Dardenne made the official request to the Civil Service Commission; and
9 WHEREAS, Civil Service Commission data indicates that very few employees have
10 received performance adjustments in recent years and the pay raises that were granted were
11 not provided to employees in every agency; and
12 WHEREAS, reactions to the governor's request demonstrated concern regarding the
13 length of time since performance adjustments were last provided to all employees and how
14 continuing to not provide performance adjustments may affect future agency workloads; and
15 WHEREAS, nearly 8,500 state employees were actually laid off from Fiscal Year
16 2008-2009 through 2014-2015, thereby increasing workloads on many of the remaining
17 classified state employees; and
18 WHEREAS, even though in Fiscal Year 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 the Civil Service
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SLS 16RS-2663 ORIGINAL
1 Commission suspended the ability to grant pay raises to all classified employees, in
2 subsequent fiscal years often half or more of the eligible workforce went without any
3 performance adjustments; and
4 WHEREAS, according to the Department of Civil Service total employee turnover
5 exceeded seventeen percent in four of the last seven years; and
6 WHEREAS, there may be several other options such as waiting until new revenue
7 estimates have been established which may show an improved fiscal posture or allowing the
8 Civil Service Commission to delay a final decision until after any possible June special
9 session of the legislature takes place which would still be before the beginning of the new
10 fiscal year.
11 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
12 does hereby request the governor to reconsider the request to the Civil Service Commission
13 to suspend the annual "performance adjustments" for Fiscal Year 2016-2017 for eligible
14 employees within the nearly 40,000 classified employee workforce.
15 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
16 governor, the commissioner of administration, and the Civil Service Commission.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Jay R. Lueckel.
DIGEST
SR 121 Original 2016 Regular Session Martiny
Requests the governor to reconsider the request to the Civil Service Commission to suspend
the annual "performance adjustments" for Fiscal Year 2016-2017 for eligible employees
within the nearly 40,000 classified employee workforce.
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