Although the state government's final budget won't be written until the conference committee meetings likely to begin next week, the fate of state employees' pay seems settled.
Gov. Jay Nixon proposed a 2 percent across-the-board pay raise, to begin next Jan. 1, when he submitted his budget plan last January.
The House changed that to $500 a year, per employee - also beginning Jan. 1.
And the Senate's Appropriations Committee agreed with that plan, putting the same numbers in its proposal debated in the Senate Monday night.
Since the conference committee negotiations are designed to decide
places where there are differences between the House and Senate bills - and there are no differences on the pay raise issue - there appears little likelihood of changing the pay numbers.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, told colleagues Monday there are some minor adjustments to that pay plan for "some nurses in the Mental Health department and some Corrections employees."