A move to add back a 3% cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) for state workers' pensions that the state took away in 2011 started to move in the House this week, but it could ultimately falter amid resistance in the Senate.
The House Appropriations Committee unanimously approved the bill (HB 151). It would add a 3% COLA for members of the Florida Retirement System enrolled before July 1, 2011, and it would apply to the first $150,000 of annual benefit.
House budget chief Tom Leek, an Ormond Beach Republican, pushed for the COLA addition last year as part of negotiations with the Senate on the final spending plan, but it didn't make it into the final agreement, despite other pension boosters making the cut.
He said there's still a need for the COLA to improve recruitment and retention throughout the state workforce amid a tight labor market. Leek said the House is willing to pay for it — despite the $2.1 billion price tag for state and local governments next year — even though he and House Speaker Paul Renner, a Palm Coast Republican, have warned of slowing revenues and the need for a tighter budget this year.
"The policy decision is one that we're willing to pay for," Leek told reporters Wednesday. "We absolutely still see the need."
But Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples Republican, threw cold water on the prospect of the COLA addition this year.
"At this point I don't see it making it to the finish line. We have so many other issues we need to address," she told reporters Thursday.
The Senate version of the bill (SB 242) hasn't received a hearing in the Regular Session.
And unlike last year, the COLA addition hasn't been included in either chamber's budget bills. That means it won't be part of the formal negotiations between the House and Senate over the final spending plan, further decreasing its prospects.
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