(LISTEN): Missouri’s governor says state government pay must be competitive with the marketplace

We’ll learn this month whether Missouri’s governor will propose a state employee pay raise in his budget.

Governor Mike Parson will unveil his budget blueprint during his January 24th State of the State Address. The governor tells 939 the Eagle’s “Wake Up Mid-Missouri” that state employees have been on his mind since he became governor in 2018.

“I have put them through the ringer, I mean of things they’ve had to go through whether it was COVID, civil unrest, floods, droughts, you name it, tornadoes, in five-and-a-half years. And I realized how important each one of them were, especially the front-line employees. So I’m a big supporter,” Governor Parson tells 939 the Eagle’s “Wake Up Mid-Missouri”, from the Governor’s Prayer Breakfast.

More than 14,000 state employees work in Cole County, making state government Jefferson City’s largest employer. Governor Parson tells listeners that he wants state government to be competitive with the marketplace, emphasizing the importance of keeping good employees. He proposed and signed an 8.7 percent state employee pay raise last winter.

More than 600 people packed Jefferson City’s Capitol Plaza hotel Thursday morning for the 2024 Governor’s prayer breakfast. University of Missouri athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois served as the emcee for the breakfast, which was hosted by Missouri Governor Mike Parson.

“Great to have MU, the representation they’ve had. And what a great year they’ve had, all the way from academic to the nuclear reactor to sports I mean it’s just been huge for the university this year. And then to win the Cotton Bowl (in Arlington), so it’s kind of fun,” says Parson.

The Missouri Tigers defeated #7 Ohio State to win last Friday’s Goodyear Cotton Bowl. Governor Parson was at the game in Arlington, and he was also in Columbia for the October groundbreaking ceremony for the $20-million expansion of the MU Research Reactor (MURR), which produces a medical isotope that battles various cancers worldwide.

State Rep. Kathy Steinhoff (D-Columbia) has told 939 the Eagle that MURR is the nation’s top-ranked University research reactor.