Veto of Teachers’ Pay Raise Overridden : Mississippi Legislature Ignores Governor’s Warning of Disaster

Ignoring Gov. Bill Allain’s warnings that “increasing taxes at this time could be disastrous,” the Mississippi Legislature voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to override the governor’s veto and approve a $4,400 raise in teachers’ salaries over three years.

Mississippi teachers, now the lowest paid in the nation with an average salary of $15,971, had been seeking a pay raise of $7,000 over two years. Wildcat walkouts of up to 23 days had erupted--most of them interrupted last week by the spring break--to protest the low educator pay levels.

$77.6-Million Package

Just a day after the governor announced his disapproval of the $77.6-million pay package, the veto was overturned by votes of 46 to 3 in the Senate and 104 to 16 in the House. A two-thirds vote in each house was required to override.

The compromise bill, which includes stringent anti-strike provisions, had been given final legislative approval Sunday and sent to Allain.

Teachers from across the state who packed the House and Senate galleries to watch the action Tuesday were elated by the lopsided votes to override the veto.

“It isn’t the money that’s really the issue, it’s the future of education in Mississippi,” said Jane Massey, a first-grade teacher from Meridian, in an interview after the final vote. “We’re hoping to keep good teachers in Mississippi. We’re losing them now to adjoining states.”

Financial Frustrations

Massey said that she is an example of the financial frustrations teachers in this state endure. After 12 years of teaching and with a master’s degree to her credit, she said, she earns only $17,000 annually.

“I could make $5,000 to $8,000 more teaching somewhere else,” she said. “But I have family and children here, and I love Mississippi.”

Until Tuesday afternoon, the fate of the vetoed bill hung in the balance. The Mississippi Assn. of Educators, the state’s largest teachers’ union, had opposed the measure because of its strong anti-strike provisions.

But, at a noon news conference, union officers announced a change of heart and urged the Legislature to overturn the veto. Given this signal, the lawmakers acted promptly to override. The Senate voted first, followed within hours by the House--in both instances without debate.

“We still strongly oppose the anti-strike language,” said George Brown, a spokesman for the Mississippi Assn. of Educators. “But we feel that we got more in this package in terms of pay than if a new bill would be introduced.”

Anti-Strike Provisions

Brown said that the union would make removal of the anti-strike provisions its No. 1 legislative priority for next year.

Rep. Rick Fortenberry (D-Meridian), a member of both the House Ways and Means and Education committees, said he was confident that the anti-strike language could be “toned down” by the Legislature.

“In my mind, parts of the anti-strike measures are completely unworkable,” he said.

Among other things, the anti-strike provisions levy fines of up to $20,000 a day for any teacher organization found to be in contempt for violating a court injunction against any strike. Any teacher taking part in an illegal strike is to be dismissed and may not be rehired by any public school district in the state unless a court finds the rehiring to be a “public necessity.”

The union’s demand for higher pay set off wildcat teacher strikes--the state’s first teacher strikes ever--beginning on Feb. 25. Those walkouts spread until 9,200 of the state’s 27,000 teachers were striking in 55 of the state’s 154 districts. Their action brought the union a contempt of court citation Monday, and, hours later, the union urged the teachers to return to classes. By Tuesday, state education officials said that strikes were still going on only in Long Beach and Bay St. Louis, on the Gulf Coast.

Raises Tied to Tax Hikes

In his veto message, Allain said: “Consistently, I have said that increasing taxes at this time could be disastrous.” The measure, which calls for a $2,400 pay hike next school year and $1,000 increases in each of the following two years, would be financed by levies on cigarettes, alcohol, construction contracts, computer software, manufacturing machinery, railroad fuel and other items.

“I was disappointed,” the governor told reporters after the final override vote in the House. “It looks like the Legislature is on a binge of tax and spend, tax and spend.”

He added: “If you get to be known as a taxing state, industry won’t come in.”

Union officers disagreed with the governor. “That argument has sold to a few people that I would classify as rednecks, but the general public has told us that poor education--not taxes--keeps business from coming here,” Brown said.

Patsy Edwards, a high school English teacher from Water Valley, said that if the veto had not been overridden “the situation would have been critical.”

“We’re not only the lowest-paid teachers in the country,” said Edwards, whose husband also is a high school teacher, “we also don’t get any fringe benefits, like health insurance or dental care. The only benefit we get are free tickets to the high school ball games.”

She said that her and her husband’s combined salaries from teaching amount to $24,000 a year and that he must work summers as an agricultural consultant.

“Thank God we don’t have any college loans to pay back, but that’s only because we had the help of our parents to get us through school,” she said.