The Missouri Supreme Court building in Jefferson City on April 4, 2024 (Jason Hancock/Missouri Independent).
Since late 2021, a market pay plan designed to combat high turnover in the Department of Transportation has been tied up in court over the question of whether lawmakers or the Highways and Transportation Commission has final say over how state road funds are spent.
The final answer, delivered Tuesday by the Missouri Supreme Court, is that the commission can set salaries and use the State Road Fund for any purpose allowed by the constitution, even if it exceeds amounts approved by legislators.
The high court denied a request for an appeal of a November decision of the Western District Court of Appeals allowing the raises.
The only off-limits money in the Road Fund, the appeals court ruled, is the portion set aside for debt payments.
The market-based pay plan was developed after the department lost an average of 600 employees per year from fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2021. During that period, general state pay raises were small or non-existent.
Turnover is still high, but it is improving, Director Ed Hassinger said Wednesday, thanks in large part to general state pay raises that have equaled almost 21% since 2021.
This year’s state pay plan, proposed by Gov. Mike Kehoe, will reward longevity of service. Employees will receive a 1% pay raise for every two years in the state government workforce, up to 10%.
The commission’s goal for the pay plan was to raise pay levels so 65% of MoDOT employees are at or above the midpoint in the pay range for their job. The department has implemented as much of the plan as allowed by legislative appropriations, Hassinger said.
“The combination of the commission executing the market plan four years ago and what the Parson administration and the legislature did has made huge strides in making sure that we’re market competitive,” Hassinger said.
Judge approves pay raise plan for Missouri transportation agency workers
The most pressing need currently is for technical staff, engineers and road inspectors, Hassinger said.
In its budget request for the coming year, MoDOT stated that 89.3% of its employees were below the midpoint. The department is asking lawmakers to add $13.6 million, which Hassinger said would allow the department to reach the market plan goals.
When the plan was first approved by the commission, the projected cost was $60 million.
“We’re competitive in most markets, and we want to continue to build on that,” Hassinger said. “We’ve taken it to the governor and the legislature and we’re going to continue to have the conversation about how we operate.”
The lawsuit began when Commissioner of Administration Ken Zellers refused to issue paychecks for the market play raises in November 2021. The commission then sued Zellers, seeking an interpretation of constitutional language that the road fund “shall stand appropriated without legislative action.”
The Western District decision, upholding the trial court ruling of Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker, rejected the arguments from the attorney general’s office that the “stands appropriated” language only applied to payments on road bonds.
When the lawsuit was filed, it angered several lawmakers, including now-state Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin. In February 2022, O’Laughlin and five other lawmakers sent a letter to the highway commission demanding that it fire then-department director Patrick McKenna. He resigned in August to take a new job outside Missouri.
They were upset that the raises, and the lawsuit, were approved within two months of the first state fuel tax increase in 27 years. State lawmakers approved the tax increase – 12.5 cents per gallon phased in over five years – without seeking a statewide vote.
O’Laughlin was angered again last fall at the hiring Hassinger, a 40-year veteran of the department, as McKenna’s replacement, saying the commission should have hired someone from outside.
This session, O’Laughlin proposed a constitutional amendment to abolish the commission and put selection of the department director in the hands of the governor. The measure has been referred to a committee but has not had a public hearing.
She declined Wednesday to comment on the Supreme Court action. The bill has not moved very far, O’Laughlin said, because “it’s not ready yet.”
Several other proposals to change how MoDOT has been governed have also been filed, but only one has had a public hearing and none have received a vote.
The commission wants to show it is responsive to the legislature and able to deliver on promised projects, commission vice chairman Dustin Boatwright said.
“Our focus is the execution of the work that’s in the pipeline,” Boatwright said. “To do that, we have to have great partnerships with not only our contractors throughout the state, our industry throughout the state, but also next door, with the General Assembly and with leadership, and the governor’s office.”
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