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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowGov. Eric Holcomb is giving a one-time bonus to all state employees, but no pay raises this year after a modest revenue forecast.
“It is important to recognize your efforts to improve the lives of Hoosiers but also in a way that our current state biennial budget, which ends June 20, 2025, will support,” he said in a letter sent to state employees Monday morning.
“In most years, we have been able to provide employees with a base-building salary adjustment; this time, full-time employees of the executive branch employed on or before Dec. 20, 2024, will receive a one-time, non-base building stipend of $1,250 in their Jan. 15, 2025, paycheck. Part-time and intermittent employees will receive $650.”
That stipend will cost state coffers between $20 million and $22 million, according to budget officials.
Indiana has more than 32,000 full-time state employees–the highest number since the Indiana State Personnel Department began recording employment in 2016. The number has grown steadily since hitting a similar count in 2019. State government employment dropped significantly from 2020 to 2022 due to the pandemic before rebounding.
Last year, state employees received a performance-based bonus between $500 and $1,500 as well as a 3% cost-of-living adjustment or pay raise.
To address low pay, Holcomb previously implemented a $1,300 salary increase, followed by a 2.5% salary increase for all state employees in January 2022; this salary adjustment resulted in an average increase of 5% for employees and was the first general salary increase in Indiana since 2008.
The move to deny pay raises comes as statewide elected officials will receive substantial hikes starting in January. Lawmakers included the increases in the current budget. For instance, the governor’s pay will jump from about $133,000 to $221,000. Similar hikes were included for lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller, treasurer and secretary of state.
After back-to-back years of explosive revenue growth, fueled by federal dollars and an uptick in consumer spending, Indiana’s incoming dollars have slowed to pre-pandemic levels. Budget writers have urged their fellow lawmakers to tighten funding requests and prepare themselves for a lean two-year cycle.
In the letter to employees, Holcomb praised the significant contributions state employees made to improve the lives of Hoosiers.
“It was my great honor to cut the ribbon on the final leg of I-69 from Evansville to Indianapolis this summer, opening even greater opportunities for us from border to border. The Department of Health is finishing the first year of Health First Indiana, bringing more resources to local communities to improve the health of their residents. And I’ve traveled across the state to see the progress we’re making on capital projects that will impact Hoosiers in a variety of ways, from the Indiana Archives building in downtown Indianapolis to the new lodge at Potato Creek State Park and a state-of-the-art facility for the Department of Correction at Westville that will be known as the Northwest Indiana Correctional Facility. I’m so proud of these efforts and so many more that you are working to execute each and every day.”
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The usual. No raises for the men and women in the trenches providing day to day services. Not even a COLA. Those at the top, Cha Ching.
If the governor would stop giving IEDC dollars away that private companies should give then our State employees would get raises. Stop complaining about shortages and fix the waste in government.
Amazing how the outgoing Governor is the one issuing the statement and not the loser taking office. Should have just said bend over.
Robert, you call the one who gained the vast majority of Hoosier votes a “loser?” Is it just your fellow citizens you hate or is it all of democracy?
I guess this is another way to shrink the state payroll as people bail and departments become non-functional. This brings to mind CPS.
What a gut punch. I genuinely feel terrible for them and their families.
As a state employee I felt shocked and thought it was a typo when I got the email. Then I remembered reading about the massive pay raises for statewide elected officials and said yep, that make sense.
Former state employee here–it’s been this way for a long time (my experience is from the late-1980s to the first five years of the 21st century). Merit raises were practically unheard of as well. Usually the only way to get ahead was to find another state position which was classified at a higher designation, or leave State employ completely. The State also worked people above their official position requirements–I supervised 8–12 professionals, but never got the designation of “Supervisory and Management” (and the money that went with it). Just the responsibility.
The governor (and it made no difference which governor, or which party) always issued a statement saying how he was proud of, and how much he appreciated, the efforts of state workers. That always rang hollow.