Gov. John Baldacci is proposing a change in his two-year budget that would allow pay raises for certain state employees. The increases are being offered to workers who have taken major hits in the governor's budget plan. To pay for the changes announced today, Baldacci is proposing a so-called "payroll push" amounting to some $3 million dollars into the next budget cycle. Democrats and state workers are supporting the plan, but Republicans remain skeptical.

Forced to make concessions on health care, furlough days, positions and salary, Maine's state workers haven't found much to like in Gov. John Baldacci's budget revisions. But the administration hopes to offset some of that suffering.

"We've been looking for a fix, we've worked closely with the unions and we think the proposal we have on the table is balanced," says
Ryan Low, the governor's chief of finance who appeared before the Legislature's Appropriations Committee and outlined the latest changes in the administration's $438 million supplemental budget.

In what was described as the first of a two-stage revision, the administration is attempting to craft a better package for state workers by eliminating three additional state shutdown days and restoring longevity pay. Low says the governor proposes to pay for these benefits by pushing a few days payroll costs into the the budget cycle that takes effect six months after he leaves office.

Low says the proposal "results in a net savings to the general fund of about $3 million. It allows us to address a longevity pay issue that we've been working with the union and the Legislature on for some time."

Some GOP lawmakers are less than enthusiastic about the governor's approach.

"There are pushes in the budget already, and so this would be another one," says state Sen. Richard Rosen, a Bucksport Republican who sits on the Appropriations Committee. "Clearly it's our desire to not go in that direction."

Rosen says members of his panel would like to find a better solution to restoring longevity to state workers. "I have concerns over the method used to generate the money. The idea of pushing a pay cycle ahead concerns me and I'd like to have us examine other possibilities. The proposal that the administration is advancing does create more revenue for the budget, that's true. But it does so by pushing an obligation ahead."

State Sen. Peter Mills, a Cornville Republican who is running for governor, says he can't understand why the governor would want to push any current budget costs into the next budget cycle given the existing uncertainties in the economy.

"It just deepens that burden," Mills says. "We don't have recovery funds coming, the revenues aren't scheduled to pick up for the next Legislature. It's basically a lateral pass to the next governor and the next Legislature of a further portion of the burden that we're now trying to bear."

Some key Democrats, however, including state Sen. Bill Diamond of Windham, say they're on board with the plan. "Ordinarily probably a push would raise concerns, and it still may to some degree. But I think this is an agreement that's been arrived at between all the unions and the governor's office and the governor, and so I think the committee will give it some serious consideration."

Diamond, who serves as co-chair of the Appropriations Committee, says the longevity pay issue is a big concern for state workers. Under the system, workers are awarded longevity pay after 15 years of service and receive raises every five years until they'be been on the job for 25 years.

"It does affect the unions, the members, obviously, so their input was important," Diamond says. "But again anything like this always does raise concerns a little bit. This is unique because it does have the support of all the players."

Union officials have said that the longevity pay is worth from $1,000 to $2,000 a year for eligible workers.