Denied pay step concerns senator

Just 1 university gave full raise

By Debra Hale-Shelton

LITTLE ROCK — Legislators gathering in Little Rock next month will likely discuss the decision by all but one of Arkansas’ four-year universities to withhold full pay increases from classified employees despite a law that provided for the raises this fiscal year, a co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee said Monday.

All state agencies gave the full raises, said Richard Weiss, director of the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. But Arkansas Tech University in Russellville was the only four-year public university to give more than a partial pay-plan increase to classified workers this fiscal year, an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette survey found.

State lawmakers will begin budget hearings Jan. 12, with the first ones focusing on higher education, said state Sen. Gilbert ...

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/29/2009

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