Compromise $77.6-Million Bill Faces Possible Veto : Teacher Raises Approved in Mississippi

Lawmakers gave final clearance Sunday to a $4,400 teacher pay raise package, sending the $77.6-million measure to Gov. Bill Allain.

The compromise bill, which includes a wide range of tax increases and strong anti-strike language, passed in the Senate and House late Saturday, ending a three-day stalemate. It was the fourth compromise proposal developed by House-Senate negotiators.

The votes, and rejection Sunday of motions to reconsider the bill, placed the measure on Allain’s desk. The governor has advocated $1,500 raises without any tax increases, hinting that he would veto any new taxes.

$2,400 Increase Next Year

The approved version of the bill would boost teachers’ salaries by $2,400 next year and by $1,000 in each of the following two years. The third-year raise is tied to a merit pay provision.

Mississippi teachers, now the lowest paid in the nation with an average yearly salary of $15,971, have been pushing for a $3,500 increase in each of the next two years.

“We are pleased they finally passed something, but we find the punitive language untenable,” Herman Coleman, spokesman for the Mississippi Assn. of Educators, said Sunday of the anti-strike language in the bill.

The MAE board was to meet Sunday night to consider the pay package and decide whether to expand wildcat strikes protesting low pay and state inaction. At their height, the strikes have kept more than 170,000 pupils and 9,000 teachers out of school.

Strike Called for Today

The educators’ association has called on all of the state’s 26,000 teachers to strike today. Most school districts were closed last week for vacation.

A Hinds County judge has ruled that the strikes violate teacher contracts, and a court hearing is scheduled today. Association members have been called to show cause why the strikers should not be held in contempt of court.

Representatives, who approved the compromise bill by an 81-36 margin Saturday, voted 64 to 32 Sunday against reconsidering it, despite pleas from two members who objected to the no-strike language.

Senators, who had passed the bill, 33 to 15, shouted their rejection of a motion to reconsider without any debate.

Two Urge Look at Bill

Reps. Leslie King and Aaron Henry urged the House to take another look at the bill, which King termed “an ill-conceived and illegitimate child of frustration.”

King said that, under a court ruling, teachers are considered state employees and that they should have been awarded state-paid health insurance. He also complained about “the vindictive language provided in the no-strike provision.”

Henry said that teachers should have the right to redress grievances through strikes.

The final compromise included modified anti-strike language. A provision in the first, requiring any rehired striker to return at starting-teacher pay, was removed. Retained, however, was a provision, effective May 1, that a fired teacher could not be rehired unless a chancery court judge “first finds a public necessity therefor.”

The no-strike language led the association, the state’s largest teachers union, to lobby against the bill.