Pay raises for Dallas County Community College District employees scrapped due to state budget cuts
The Dallas Morning News
December 9, 2010
Pay raises for community college employees in Dallas County were an early casualty of the latest round of state budget cuts.
Officials said Wednesday that a $325 raise for nearly 3,300 employees of the Dallas County Community College District has been scrapped because of state leaders' edict this week that spending be chopped to help Texas dig out of a huge revenue shortfall.
"We received this communication from Austin just before our board met for their regular meeting," said Edward DesPlas, the district's executive vice president for business affairs.
On the trustees' agenda at Tuesday's meeting was a staff recommendation that 765 full-time faculty members and more than 2,500 staff members receive the raises to offset a $325 annual increase in health premiums for an employee taking out family coverage.
"Regrettably, we were placed in a position to table that recommendation," DesPlas said.
The raises would have cost slightly more than $1 million. Last year, employees received a $300 raise to keep them "whole" from an earlier increase in health insurance premiums, DesPlas said. The last time they had a cost-of-living raise was two years ago, he said.
The 73,000-student district will delay planned technology purchases to save another $750,000, he said.
