The economic downturn may begin competing with Pinellas County taxpayers’ best intentions to give teachers a raise – but not if union officials have anything to say about it.

At issue is the salary supplement instructional personnel have received since voters approved a special half-mill property tax in 2004. In 2005-06, each employee received $2,625 of his or her salary from the referendum.

The amount increased to $3,284 in 2006-07, and $3,529 the year after that. Despite a tax roll decrease of 2.11 percent in 2008-09, the district held the supplement steady at $3,529 thanks to money left over from the previous year.

But now the Pinellas property appraiser is projecting a 10.68 percent reduction in the 2009-10 tax roll. The school district has eliminated some positions because of enrollment, thus reducing the number of people paid from referendum dollars.

Still, district officials say the tax won't generate enough money to pay teachers the same amount next year.

The result? The referendum supplement must decrease by $290, school officials say. District negotiators have alerted union officials that 11.5-month and 12-month instructional personnel will see less money in their paychecks as soon as July 1.

That’s not sitting well with the union.

Kim Black, president of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association, has referred the school district to language embedded in the salary schedule in the collective bargaining agreement that says the amounts agreed upon include $3,529 in referendum supplement dollars approved by voters on Nov. 2, 2004.

Declining tax collections should not affect the salary as stated in the schedule, Black maintains. She has asked the district to reconsider its decision to reduce employee salaries, adding that “this unilateral action … undermines the collaborative nature of our collective bargaining process.”

The district has not yet responded to the request.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

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