First there was Deborah Ross who said,
The Raleigh Democrat says her biggest goal for the budget is a raise for teachers and state employees, though she did not have a specific amount in mind.
“I don’t want to give a number because then they’ll be mad at me because I didn’t say a high enough number,” she said. “I’m hoping that we can do as well as we did last year.”
Now Grier Martin is getting into the act. Under the Dome reports,
He does not think Gov. Mike Easley’s proposed 7 percent pay raise for teachers and 1.5 percent raise for state employees is enough, though he declined to give a specific percentage that he would like to see.
“We need more,” he said, “but we’ve got to figure out how we’re going to pay for that too.”
I would really like Ross and Martin to ballpark the raises they have in mind. Should teachers and state employees receive an additional 10 percent? 25 percent? 54.3 percent? 77.892 percent?
