Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker’s administration said the county cannot afford a 2 percent pay increase promised by his predecessor to many unionized county employees. Officials with local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees chapters said former County Executive Jack Johnson agreed to a cost-of-living pay increase in the last months of his term. Johnson, who has since been indicted on federal corruption charges, left office in December.
“This 2 percent was offered to us,” said Glen Middleton, executive director of Council 67 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “The previous county executive told us it was funded in the budget.”
Those seeking more pay include school crossing guards and health department employees. Middleton said the pay increase is needed because the workers are among the lowest paid in the county.
But the Baker administration said increasing the pay for union workers is impossible as the county faces a $77 million budget deficit and officials foresee a shakier financial future.
His budget calls for freezing pay for all county employees. Brad Frome, a deputy chief of staff to Baker, told the County Council that an “inequity” would result if union employees received a pay increase while others didn’t.
The wage increase would cost the county $1.6 million a year, and Thomas Himler, Baker’s budget director, suggested a raise would trigger considerable pressure to give all county employees a 2 percent raise, which would cost the county another $12 million a year, he said.
“If we’re looking at $12 million a year, just to put that in perspective, that’s roughly comparable to the budget of the state’s attorney’s office in fiscal year 2012,” Frome said.
Several dozen union members in green shirts expressed support during Tuesday’s meeting for legislation implementing the pay increase. The meeting got heated when Councilwoman Karen Toles, a Suitland Democrat and a former AFSCME political employee, attacked Baker: “I don’t see where he made concessions on the salaries he gives his folks on the fifth floor.”
But Himler shot back that Baker cut his own office’s budget by 5 percent in his proposed fiscal 2012 spending plan.
Middleton also said Tuesday that AFSCME will fund $2,000 in scholarships for four students chosen by council members. In an interview after the meeting, he said it was appropriate to offer scholarship money for the council to distribute the same day he was lobbying the body.
“We do it all around the state and we hadn’t done it in Prince George’s County before,” he said of the scholarship grants.
Council Chairwoman Ingrid Turner, D-Bowie, said the legislation likely will come up for a vote May 17.
