Florida Senate - 2020                                    SB 1114
       
       
        
       By Senator Montford
       
       
       
       
       
       3-01015-20                                            20201114__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to cost-of-living adjustments to state
    3         employee salaries; creating s. 110.195, F.S.; defining
    4         terms; authorizing annual cost-of-living adjustments
    5         to base rates of pay of eligible state employees,
    6         beginning in 2021; requiring the Office of Economic
    7         and Demographic Research to calculate the percentage
    8         for the adjustment in a specified manner; specifying
    9         conditions under which a cost-of-living adjustment is
   10         not implemented; requiring the office to certify the
   11         adjustment amount to the Governor and the Legislature;
   12         specifying eligibility for the cost-of-living
   13         adjustment; providing legislative intent; providing
   14         that implementation of cost-of-living adjustments is
   15         contingent upon funding by the Legislature; providing
   16         an effective date.
   17          
   18  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   19  
   20         Section 1. Section 110.195, Florida Statutes, is created
   21  and incorporated into part I of chapter 110, Florida Statutes,
   22  to read:
   23         110.195 Annual cost-of-living adjustments to state employee
   24  salaries.—
   25         (1) As used in this section, the term:
   26         (a) “State agency” means any official, officer, commission,
   27  board, authority, council, committee, or department of the
   28  executive or judicial branches of state government.
   29         (b) “State employee” means an employee filling an
   30  established position as an employee of a state agency.
   31         (2) Beginning January 1, 2021, and each January 1
   32  thereafter, the base rate of pay of each eligible state employee
   33  shall be increased by the percentage adjustment calculated
   34  pursuant to subsection (3).
   35         (3)(a) By November 1, 2020, and each November 1 thereafter,
   36  the Office of Economic and Demographic Research shall calculate
   37  the percentage increase, if any, in the Consumer Price Index for
   38  Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers from the average for the
   39  third quarter of the current calendar year to the average for
   40  the third quarter of the preceding calendar year.
   41         (b) If the calculation made pursuant to paragraph (a)
   42  results in a positive number, the number must be rounded to the
   43  nearest tenth of 1 percent. If the calculation results in a
   44  negative number, or if the rounded result is zero, there is no
   45  cost-of-living adjustment for the year.
   46         (c) The Office of Economic and Demographic Research shall
   47  certify the result of the calculation to the Governor, the
   48  President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of
   49  Representatives.
   50         (4)(a) To be eligible for the adjustment authorized in
   51  subsection (2), a state employee, at a minimum, must have met
   52  his or her required performance standard, if applicable, during
   53  the most recently completed fiscal year. If an otherwise
   54  eligible state employee achieves performance standards
   55  subsequent to the cost-of-living adjustment, but on or before
   56  the end of the fiscal year, the employee may receive the
   57  adjustment effective on the date the employee achieves such
   58  standards but not retroactively to the date of the cost-of
   59  living adjustment.
   60         (b) It is the intent of the Legislature that all eligible
   61  state employees receive the increases authorized in subsection
   62  (2) even if the implementation of such increase results in an
   63  employee’s salary exceeding the adjusted pay grade maximum.
   64         (5) Each increase authorized in subsection (2) is
   65  contingent upon a specific appropriation by the Legislature to
   66  fund the first year’s costs of implementation of such increase.
   67         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2020.