“While we acknowledge that our economy is not fully recovered, this wage adjustment is the right thing to do to help the Commonwealth retain and recruit a talented and competitive workforce that can continue to work hard for the people of Massachusetts,’’ Patrick said in a statement that chronicled sacrifices by state employees during the recession, such as furlough days and high health care payments.
The governor and his staff will not get the raises, said a spokeswoman for Gonzalez, nor will the eight Cabinet secretaries.
The coming year’s budget, which also begins July 1, will be among the toughest in state history, as Patrick and lawmakers have been forced to address a $1.9 billion gap. Federal stimulus money that has propped up state programs during the depths of the economic downturn expires this year, forcing extensive cuts.
State college tuition and fees, for example, are set to increase 7.5 percent next semester, following a vote Wednesday by the University of Massachusetts board.
Bonnie Keefe-Layden — chief executive officer of Rehabilitative Resources Inc., a Sturbridge-based nonprofit organization that contracts with the state to house people with disabilities — called the management raises shocking. For three years, she said, the state has resisted giving raises to 30,000 contract employees who make about $12 an hour to work with elderly and disabled residents, helping them shower, get dressed, and accomplish other basic tasks.
“Nothing’s wrong with anyone getting a raise,’’ Keefe-Layden said. “But if you’re keeping an entire sector of the lowest-paid people from getting a raise while giving management a raise, that’s just mind-boggling.’’
Gonzalez argues that pay freezes, furloughs, and benefit reductions for both union and management workers have prevented deeper cuts to state services, saving the state $200 million since July 2007. Even with a 3 percent hike, state managers will have taken a $3.4 million combined cut between July 2008 and July 2012 because of furlough days, Gonzalez said.
