By Bobby Harrison

Mississippi Today

If legislators follow through with a teacher salary hike next year without also providing funds to shore up the state’s Public Employee Retirement System, local school districts will have to absorb a large portion of any teacher pay raise.

Members of the PERS Board of Trustees have announced their intention to increase the employer – schools and other governmental entities – contribution from 15.75 percent of payroll to 17.40 percent, starting July 1.

That increase would cost state-supported agencies an additional $75.2 million. The cost to local school districts would total an additional $40 million – most of which normally would come from state funds; a small portion comes from local funds.

But if the Legislature, for instance, approved the $25 million teacher pay raise Gov. Phil Bryant proposed, but did not provide funds to cover the PERS increase, local school districts could fall further into a financial hole.

“It would not be the first time the Legislature gave a teacher pay raise, but did not provide enough funds to pay for the cost of it,” said Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory.

In his budget proposal, Bryant provides funds for both – the teacher pay raise and the PERS increase. In the proposed budget released in early December by the Legislative Budget Committee, which includes Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, Speaker Philip Gunn and other key legislators, neither are funded. But legislative leaders left room in the budget to consider these and other issues during the 2019 legislative session, starting in January.

“We are still working on that,” House Appropriations Chair Rep. John Read, R-Gautier, said of funding the pension increase. “That has to be addressed.”

A failure to include the cost of the pension increase in its final budget, expected in late March, would be tantamount to a cut to agencies. For instance, if an agency is level-funded, any additional contributions to the state pension program would mean less money for other items.