Governor backs 18 percent pay hike for prison guards

Tuesday, May 4, 1999 | 3:17 a.m.

Denice Miller of Guinn's staff told the Senate Finance Committee SB353 would help fix "a severe lag" in what the state pays the correctional officers.

"We view this not simply as an issue of equity but of public safety," she said Monday.

The increase wasn't part of the governor's proposed budget. Miller said Guinn decided to support it after the Economic Forum reported last week that more revenues have come in than expected.

Nor was the nearly $8 million a year the pay hikes would cost among the priorities listed by Guinn's chief of staff, Pete Ernaut, after the Economic Forum's estimates came out.

Senate Finance Chairman Bill Raggio, R-Reno, questioned where the money was coming from. He acknowledged there's money in the new forum projections, but said the governor has already announced where most of it is going. He also asked whether the governor and his staff had considered the growing number of items on the Legislature's so-called "top priority list."

Ed Flagg of the Nevada Correctional Association told the committee the raise is necessary to correct a gross inequity in pay. He said state correctional officers get so much less than Washoe and Clark counties and neighboring states pay that all Nevada is doing is acting as a training ground for those jurisdictions.

Bob Gagnier of the State of Nevada Employees Association said the pay gap is now 49 percent and "it's getting worse."

"It's outrageous," he said pointing out that a correctional officer at starting pay with a family actually qualifies for public assistance.

They were joined by Assistant Prison Director John Slansky who said correctional officers do "an extraordinary job" and deserve to be paid much better for it.

SB353 proposes a four-grade increase in pay - a total of about 18 percent. Its annual cost would be $7.8 million for the 1,650 correctional officers and another $250,000 for some 50 caseworkers.