Dear Legislators,
At $7.3 billion, current year salary spending on Corrections employees is 33% higher than forecast by last year’s budget and nearly 50% more than the prior year.
This isn’t small change. $7.3 billion is more than twice the $3 billion you awarded the entire Judicial Branch. Even before you and the governor granted correctional officers a raise last June, their wages were already more than 20% above the next highest state and more than double the median state.
You must make the next contract with correctional officers a top priority.* Correctional officers should be appreciated but not excessively compensated for their important work. This ugly situation also illustrates the urgent need for a ban on political donations to lawmakers from organizations whose shareholders, employees or members receive money under agreements with the state to provide services. Lawmakers simply should not accept donations from entities or people to whom they award taxpayer funds.
*The current contract expires in 2023.
