But this year, state policy-makers were going to make it all better. The Department of Human Resources prepared a study showing the lowest paid state employees compared to similar jobs in other sectors, and the two most glaring examples were Highway Patrol troopers and State Prison officers.
The Legislature committed $10 million for Public Safety to cover the 2.5 percent cost-of-living increase passed for all state employees, plus $750,000 to increase the pay of UHP troopers by two salary increments.
Then everything got screwed up.
The Legislature did not take into account that the $10 million also had to be used for benefits, and that it had to cover all Department of Public Safety employees, including secretaries, dispatchers, etc.
Plus, the Legislature did not count all the UHP employees when it allocated the $750,000 for the salary increment upgrades. The Department of Human Services spread it across the entire department, rather than just the troopers and sergeants on the road, resulting in a one-salary-increment increase at best.
All this at a time when troopers, along with all other state employees, have lost their ability to convert unused sick leave to retirement health care benefits, a perk that had helped in the past mitigate the troopers' frustration at the low pay.
Morale has plummeted.
Some legislators tried to get the issue addressed at the Legislature's special session this spring, but the governor's staff, and some legislative staffers, worried that highlighting additional pay for UHP troopers without doing the same for other public employees would cause political turmoil.
The result: Between Jan. 1 and the end of May, 19 UHP employees announced they are leaving.
Making troopers' jobs
harder: Here are some statistics passed on by the Utah Department of Public Safety:
* In 2003, 309 people died on Utah's roadways and 28,352 were injured. Nationally, crashes cost about $230 billion each year in medical expenses, lost productivity, property damage and related costs. Utah pays about $1.6 billion of these costs. That is $714 for every Utah resident. About 74 percent of the cost of traffic crashes is paid by citizens NOT involved in the crashes.
* From 1975 to 2001, safety belts are estimated to have saved 147,246 lives, according to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis.
* During the National Click It or Ticket campaign between May 23 and June 5, more than 100 Utah law enforcement agencies issued 7,600 citations and 1,600 warnings for non-use of safety belt or child safety seat.
Had to get done: Last Wednesday, Shirley Kinsmen of Price was killed in an automobile accident while driving a new car back to Price for an automobile dealer.
The next morning, her husband George Kinsmen, who, among other trades, is a newspaper carrier for The Salt Lake Tribune, delivered all the newspapers on his route on time. After that, his LDS home teacher, Jae Potter, and his son, Scott Potter, offered to take over Kinsmen's route for a few days.
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Paul Rolly welcomes e-mail at prolly@sltrib.com.
