State Budget passes including significant funding for state employees

TSEA April 29, 2021 Comments Off on State Budget passes including significant funding for state employees
State Budget passes including significant funding for state employees

The Tennessee General Assembly has passed the FY2021/2022 state budget, including funding for state employee performance raises, bonuses, benefit increases, and various salary adjustments.

“It has been an incredibly challenging year, but today is a good day for state employees,” TSEA Executive Director Randy Stamps said. “This year’s budget passed by the Tennessee General Assembly invests approximately a half-billion dollars in state and higher education employees, and we are grateful to all the legislators and the governor for recognizing and rewarding the dedicated and hard-working men and women serving Tennessee.” 

A few budget highlights include: 

  • TEAM Act Performance Pay pool
  • TEAM Act Performance Bonus pool
  • Non-TEAM Act Salary Pool
  • Higher Education salary pool
  • Market Rate Adjustment
  • A lump-sum payment to Legacy Pension Plan for State Employees

Details on actual percentage amounts for raises will become available in the coming weeks. Still, we anticipate 4-percent raises for state employees (2-percent retroactive to Jan 2021 and 2-percent in Jan 2022).

In addition, the budget also includes funding for the following:

  • Probation and Parole Salary Adjustments
  • DCS caseworker series adjustments
  • Park employees salary adjustments (selected positions)
  • TCRS rate increase for Retirees
  • Fully funding the state portion (80-percent) of our State Group Health Insurance Plan
  • Fully funding our OPEB liability (funding for future and present retiree insurance benefits)
  • Backpay for Legislative, Comptroller, and Treasury employees to align with executive branch state employees
  • Funding for a significant number of projects at Higher Education campuses and State Parks throughout the state

Again, specific details about the amounts employees will receive will become clearer in the coming weeks. But the legislature just allocated a historic amount of money for state workers, and we are incredibly grateful to the members of the TN General Assembly, Governor Lee, and his administration for this unprecedented investment in state employees.

The budget now awaits Governor Lee’s signature and will take effect on July 1, 2021. TSEA will continue to analyze the figures and meet with your department leadership to learn additional details about the funding headed your way. This is a great budget for state employees!

Thank you for being a member of TSEA! We can all be proud of what we accomplished together.