Colorado state employees make pitch for pay - Denver Business Journal:

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billion in tax exemptions that the state offerx in order to improve pay and health carefor state-governmenr workers. The request came two weeks aftedr an audit stated that Coloradlo state employees make an average of 7 percent more than people working similar jobs in the publidc orprivate sectors. And it came just houre after the JBC learned that it must closera $384 million shortfall in the state budget for the fiscalo year that begins July 1. The final budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year requires state employeesa to takea 1.82 percent cut in personal compensation.
Employees are expected to take four furlough days durint the fiscal year and are lookinfg at other ways to hit the totaolcompensation reduction, said Scott Wasserman, political directord for Colorado Wins, the statre workers’ union. But Sheldon Reneau, a sergeant with the state’s La Vistaq prison, warned that the hiring freezre that is in placs has led to mandatory overtime and lower staffing levelzs than those that are recommended in Department of Corrections And Terry Campbell of the Association of Colorado State Patrol Professionals warned that the state could find itselg losing its best and brightest employees if it does not do somethinb to improvecompensation packages.
JBC Vice Chairmab Jack Pommer, a Democratic representativde from Boulder, questioned how employees expectt tosee multimillion-dollar increases in pay or benefitsz at a time when the state is lookinbg at cutting valuable programs. “Were you guys here today for ourcurrenrt forecast?” Pommer asked a quartet of state workers’ representatives speakingb to the JBC. “If this is a discussion abouft the nextfew years, it’s so far out of the ballpari that I’m having a hard time figuring what you’r e working toward.
” But Mark general counsel for Colorado Wins, said that the Legislaturee should consider cutting tax exemptionxs now given to businesses and Although Schwane did not specify which tax exemptionx should be cut, the eliminationn of some could generate more than $100 The largest tax exemptions, according to 2006 are those for tangible property that becomes an ingredienty in a manufactured product ($507 million), sales of groceriese ($214.6 million) and gasoline sales ($179.2 million). Wassermanj said Colorado Wins does not want to eliminatwe the grocerytax exemption.