AN ACT Relating to cost-of-living adjustments for community and technical college employees;
Summary
SB 5790 requires annual cost-of-living salary increases for employees of Washington’s community and technical colleges. It amends state law to direct community and technical college districts to receive annual allocations sufficient to raise academic employee salaries, including mandatory salary-related benefits, by the yearly increase in the cost-of-living index. The bill also requires districts to distribute the funds according to their salary schedules, collective bargaining agreements, and other compensation policies, and to certify that the money was spent on those increases. It makes parallel changes for classified employees of technical colleges, using the same inflation-based formula and administrative requirements.
The bill defines the cost-of-living index by reference to the Washington Consumer Price Index, and in some years uses the federal implicit price deflator as specified in the act. It also requires college boards to fold funded increases into the salary base used to calculate future cost-of-living adjustments, which compounds the effect over time. The act declares an emergency and takes effect July 1, making the changes immediately operative for the next fiscal cycle.
The bill’s impact is to create a continuing statutory obligation for the state to fully fund inflation-based pay adjustments for community and technical college academic and classified employees. It affects RCW provisions governing compensation for community and technical college district employees and technical college classified employees, and it ties state appropriations to a formula rather than discretionary budgeting. The practical effect is to increase state spending on higher education personnel compensation and to standardize how districts and boards administer those raises.
The overall sentiment around the bill appears strongly favorable. It passed the Senate Ways & Means Committee unanimously, then cleared the Senate on a 37-10 vote, passed House Appropriations unanimously, and passed the House overwhelmingly 95-1. Those margins suggest broad bipartisan support for protecting college employees from inflation and ensuring the state funds the increases.
There was little visible controversy in the available record, but the main policy issue is fiscal: the bill commits the state to fully funding annual COLAs for two categories of college employees and embeds those increases into future salary bases. Any opposition likely centered on the cost to the state budget and the automatic nature of the funding formula, rather than on the purpose of the raises themselves.
Impact
SB 5790 amends Washington statutes governing compensation for community and technical college employees by requiring annual, fully funded cost-of-living salary increases for academic employees in community and technical college districts and for classified employees in technical colleges. It also requires districts and boards to allocate and certify the use of those funds, and to incorporate funded increases into future salary bases, thereby affecting ongoing compensation calculations and state appropriations.
Sentiment
The bill was received positively throughout the legislative process, with unanimous committee votes and large floor majorities in both chambers. The voting pattern indicates broad support for providing inflation-based pay adjustments to college employees and for fully funding those adjustments at the state level.
Contention
The principal point of contention is fiscal rather than substantive: the bill obligates the state to fully fund annual COLAs and to build those increases into future salary bases, which increases long-term budget commitments. Any resistance appears to have come from legislators concerned about the cost and automatic funding mechanism, while supporters emphasized employee compensation stability and inflation protection.