Executive Committee of the Legislative Council

Tuesday, February 17, 2026·14m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Executive Committee of the Legislative Council directed legislative branch agency directors to hold employee compensation flat at 0% for FY 2026-27 pending Joint Budget Committee action, passing the motion unanimously 6-0. A separate presentation on dues to joint governmental organizations (NCSL, CSG West, and ECS) was deferred to the following week's meeting.

Key Actions

·Legislative Branch Employee Compensation (FY 2025-26 to FY 2026-27)Passed

+ 1 more action

Controversies

Interpretation of 'flat compensation' for health, life, and dental insurance

Craig Harper explicitly flagged an ambiguity in the motion, asking whether flat compensation meant holding the employer/employee percentage ratio (88/12) constant — in which case both sides would feel premium increases — or holding the dollar amount constant. Harper noted that depending on the lens, 'it could swing things significantly from both the state's perspective and the employee's perspective.' Madam Chair responded that the goal was to leave the ratio the same so that if there is an increase, it is felt on both sides, with changes to follow any JBC decision. This was a clarifying exchange, not a direct dispute.

Notable Quotes

“I am concerned that neither of those proposals will be viable for the state's budget, that the 3.5% salary increase is probably not going to be viable given our current fiscal climate and the health, life dental increase is also quite expensive.”
Craig Harper, Director, Joint Budget Committee Staff — Harper was presenting compensation options to the committee, including a 3.5% salary increase and a health, life, and dental premium increase aligned with the Governor's WINS agreement, and explaining why those proposals may not be feasible.

+ 2 more quotes

Votes

Direct the nonpartisan agency directors, the Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Clerk of the House to include a placeholder for employee compensation in their respective agency budgets resulting in flat compensation between fiscal year 2025-26 and fiscal year 2026-27, recognizing that should JBC move forward with any compensation or benefit increases for the state, those could be added to the budget during the legislative process.Passed

Yes (4)Caldwell (matched to Jarvis Caldwell, Republican, House roster), Duran (matched to Monica Duran, Democrat, House roster), Rodriguez (matched to Robert Rodriguez, Democrat, Senate roster), Simpson (matched to Cleave Simpson, Republican, Senate roster)

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TranscriptPreview

Employee compensation. This is the employee compensation for the legislative branch and part of our conversation today will include some direction to the legislative management team regarding. There he is. Regarding how we will consider compensation in budget drafting for our agency directors and we're also going to talk about the governmental organizations that we participate in as a dues paying member, ncsl, CSG west and ecs. So we'll be talking about them momentarily and then any other business that the executive committee would like to bring forward. So we are going to start this morning with Director Harper from the Joint Budget Committee to talk to us about our options on employee compensation. Director Harper, good morning. Thank you Madam Chair. CRAIG harper, Joint Budget Committee Staff I actually presented this memo last week, so I'm not sure that I have a whole lot more to add. I think just as a quick reminder, the request from the governor's office came out to about a 3.5% salary increase that aligns with the WINS agreement. The other big component that we that we talked about last week was health, life and dental insurance. WINS agreement calls for the state to…

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