Montana Legislature should address low wages

Letter to the Editor:

It was disheartening to read that, according to a recent analysis of 2013 tax return data, Montana ranked 49th for annual wages and salaries (The Missoulian, April 13). Better only than Mississippi, we have nothing to brag about because since 1991, Montana was dead last all but three years. We ranked 47th in 2008 and 49th in 2012 and 2013.

The front page bore more discouraging news: the House Appropriations Committee tabled House Bill 13.

HB13 would fund pay raises for state employees—negotiated last fall by three public employee unions and the Bullock administration—and would infuse 46.5 million pre-tax dollars into our state over the next two years. It would also appropriate $14 million in additional money to the U-system for raises over the next two fiscal years.

The bill was tabled in committee and an attempt to blast it onto the House floor failed.

I don’t get it.

No bill is dead until the Legislature adjourns, though, according to Senate Finance and Claims Committee Chair Llew Jones. So join me in urging our legislators to set politics aside, fund those negotiated pay raises and help strengthen Montana’s economy.

— Karen Buley, Missoula