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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)

Republicans may sink state employee pacts

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Public employee contracts for Minnesota state workers are likely to face opposition in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

A House-Senate subcommittee plans to consider the pacts next week after labor unions representing 31,000 employees approved contracts negotiated with Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton's administration. The chairman of a joint committee said he expects the panel will vote to put the brakes on the deals, describing them as too generous.

KSTP-TV reports that the subcommittee could decline approval. That would leave the contracts in limbo until the Legislature convenes in January.

The deals between the state and the unions, including the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, are already overdue. Workers have been paid under the terms of their old contracts more than a year after they were supposed to expire.

The new contracts include 2 percent pay raises for most workers, but some are eligible for additional pay increases of up to 3.5 percent based on level of experience. The agreements would increase co-pays for health care office visits, but the contracts would continue to cover full health insurance premiums for employees and 85 percent for dependents.

Republican Sen. Mike Parry of Waseca, chairman of the joint Subcommittee on Employee Relations, said he doesn't support the tentative contracts because they don't do enough to hold down state costs.

"This is totally out of the realm of what the Republican Party has been trying to do for the last couple of years since taking the majority," Parry told the television station.

Parry said state employee health insurance is "out of step" with what's happening in the private sector where employees are taking on a bigger burden of medical costs. The costs are due to increase 9 percent for state employees this year.

Jennifer Munt, a spokeswoman for the AFSCME chapter representing state workers, stood behind the deals.

"We expect the subcommittee to treat state employees with respect," she said.

A negative vote by the subcommittee, which has six Republicans and four Democrats, wouldn't invalidate the agreements. The Legislature would have the final say, and all 201 seats are on the line in this fall's election.

But a subcommittee vote to approve the deals would put them into effect immediately.

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Information from: KSTP-TV