Photo Courtesy/WV Legislative Photography Del. David Kelly, a former law enforcement officer and elected sheriff, said pay raises for troopers is very needed

Photo Courtesy/WV Legislative Photography
Del. David Kelly, a former law enforcement officer and elected sheriff, said pay raises for troopers is very needed

CHARLESTON — The West Virginia House of Delegates approved Gov. Jim Justice’s pay raise bill Monday that raises pay for teachers and school service personnel, but giving West Virginia State Police troopers a larger bump than included in the bill as it passed over from the state Senate.

The House passed Senate Bill 531, increasing annual salaries of certain state employees, in an unanimous 97-0 vote late Monday morning. The bill heads back to the Senate to concur with the House Finance Committee’s changes to the bill.

Justice proposed a 5% pay raise for all state employees late last year paid out of the general revenue fund beginning in fiscal year 2023 in July. While most pay raises are included in the budget bill, pay raises for teachers, school service personnel, and State Police employees are set by statute and require legislation — such as SB 531 — to increase the pay rates.

While SB 531 still includes the 5% average pay raise for teachers and school service personnel equal to approximately $2,550, the House Finance Committee amended the bill last week to boost State Police trooper and certain civilian forensic lab personnel pay raises to $10,000. The raise is designed to retain and recruit State Police troopers and employees across the state.

“It is my hope that we can continue to provide these raises on a consistent basis,” said Del. Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley. “There is no question that our state troopers deserve a pay raise. They put their lives on the line, protecting the citizens of this state every day.”

“I think our troopers are owed this money and much more,” said Del. David Kelly, R-Tyler, a former sheriff and a graduate of the State Police Academy. Kelly is one of four former law enforcement officers elected in the House. “We didn’t wear a green uniform, but there is a lifelong bond with those men and women that…protect us or drive those cruisers and protect us out here.”

The increase in State Police salaries in SB 531 was in response to another bill – House Bill 4473 — which would have set State Police pay depending on location around the state. The House bill was meant to address trooper shortages in the Eastern Panhandle, where people can cross the border to Virginia and Maryland and earn more pay. The bill was parked on the House’s inactive calendar last week and never made the Crossover Day deadline.

“Locality pay is not some farfetched concept that those of us who represent at the Eastern panhandle have concocted,” said Barrett, a co-sponsor of HB 4473 along with House Finance Committee Vice Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood. “We have an immediate crisis in the Eastern panhandle with retaining state troopers, corrections, workers, educators, (Child Protective Services) workers, and the list goes on and on.”

“I supported locality pay, but I don’t think it’s enough,” said Del. Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha. “It just didn’t do the job, so I think that this is appropriate where we’re giving the 5% raise plus in effect about another $7,500 to bring all of the troopers up to a $10,000 level. I think this is just what we need at this time. But I don’t think we should just assume that this is good enough for the next 10 years, because it won’t be.”

Other delegates said locality pay would set up an unfair system across the state and possibly cause issues with state pensions down the road.

“When you’re talking about paying somebody more to live in a certain area, that’s going to create a dynamic within the State Police and within other agencies that can be problematic,” said House Government Organization Committee Chairman Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh. “If I’m in Berkeley County versus McDowell County, then that higher pay that I’m going to get because of that locality is not just going to pay me more. It’s also going to increase my pension and you’ve got to be able to see what kind of problem that that creates and what we should do.”

The trooper pay increase is included in House Bill 4023, the House’s version of Justice’s budget bill for fiscal year 2023 beginning in July. HB 4023 sets a $4.645 billion general revenue budget for the next fiscal year, matching Justice’s budget proposal, though making some cuts to his budget and making other changes. The trooper pay raise would cost $8 million.