Haley Brown
It looks like frontline workers and teachers aren’t the only state employees to get a pay bump this year. A line in the House supplemental budget grants $1.2 million to “Agency Heads Salary Adjustments.”
What amounts to pay raises for some of the state’s agency heads would use $300,000 of the state’s recurring revenue and $900,000 from the state’s trust fund.
The $1.2 million for the salary adjustments is another line item on “sprinkle lists” in both chambers totaling nearly $350 million.
Sprinkle list is the colloquial term for supplemental budgets released by each chamber that are not subject to the same level of budget negotiations as other parts of the state’s budget.
It’s not clear which heads of the state’s 47 agencies will receive a bump in pay. That decision, according to language in the budget, is a decision for the Executive Officer of the Governor and will be based on current workload, agency mission, the number of agency positions, the total agency budget and the complexity of the agency assignment.
House budget chair Rep. Jay Trumball said the pay raise is a priority of Gov. Ron DeSantis and would bring the salaries of some of the state’s agency heads in line with the salaries of similar positions in other states.
“It’s something that the Governor has talked a few times about, being able to give some of his agency heads a raise, and we’re looking for parity as it relates to other states. I think specifically you can look at the DOT (Department of Transportation) secretary who makes $140,000 or something like that now, and let him have some parity as it relates to other secretaries across the country,” Trumbull said.
During the state’s budget conference, $1,000 one-time direct payments to teachers and the state’s pandemic frontline workers are budget items both chambers agree on, but those would be one-time payments using federal COVID-19 relief funding from the American Rescue Plan. The salary increases for state agency heads would use state money.
