Members of the Pa. National Guard miss active-duty stipends because of budget impasse!!
Over 500 members of the Pennsylvania National Guard -- many of whom have served in Iraq and Afghanistan -- are also state employees out a gratuity stipend due to the budget impasse, a spokesman with the state department of Military and Veterans Affairs confirmed Friday.
The stipends, due to members of the National Guard on active duty, are payments of $520 a month on top of the federal salary paid to active military members, said Kevin Cramsey, a spokesman with the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
Just 77 of the 568 state employees active duty were not given their June payments. Those 77 are employed by state agencies on a payroll calendar that would have paid them Friday, a payless payday for all state employees due to the ongoing budget impasse.
However, all 568 of them may be looking at working July and August without their stipends, barring Gov. Ed Rendell's passage of a bridge budget.
"If things stay the way they are right now, they may not see their August payment," Cleaver said.
This puts the men and women in harm's way in the same boat as thousands of unpaid state workers facing pay cuts and payless paydays in the wake of the impasse: They are out money due to them.
There are 1,782 Pennsylvania National Guard members working for Commonwealth agencies, Cramsey said. Of that number, 568 were given the active duty status necessary to receive the monthly payment. In many cases -- but not always -- active duty means a man or woman in uniform who is deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Only those who left their civilian jobs to go into active duty eligible.
Scott Detrow, a reporter with WITF radio embedded with the Pennsylvania National Guard's 56th Stryker Brigade, reported that members of that unit were dissatisfied with the impasse on his Twitter feed Thursday morning.
There, he reported: "A lot of state workers in 56th, and everyone I've talked to is miffed about ongoing impasse. Many blame Governor Rendell for the delay."
The stipends, due to members of the National Guard on active duty, are payments of $520 a month on top of the federal salary paid to active military members, said Kevin Cramsey, a spokesman with the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
Just 77 of the 568 state employees active duty were not given their June payments. Those 77 are employed by state agencies on a payroll calendar that would have paid them Friday, a payless payday for all state employees due to the ongoing budget impasse.
However, all 568 of them may be looking at working July and August without their stipends, barring Gov. Ed Rendell's passage of a bridge budget.
"If things stay the way they are right now, they may not see their August payment," Cleaver said.
This puts the men and women in harm's way in the same boat as thousands of unpaid state workers facing pay cuts and payless paydays in the wake of the impasse: They are out money due to them.
There are 1,782 Pennsylvania National Guard members working for Commonwealth agencies, Cramsey said. Of that number, 568 were given the active duty status necessary to receive the monthly payment. In many cases -- but not always -- active duty means a man or woman in uniform who is deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Only those who left their civilian jobs to go into active duty eligible.
Scott Detrow, a reporter with WITF radio embedded with the Pennsylvania National Guard's 56th Stryker Brigade, reported that members of that unit were dissatisfied with the impasse on his Twitter feed Thursday morning.
There, he reported: "A lot of state workers in 56th, and everyone I've talked to is miffed about ongoing impasse. Many blame Governor Rendell for the delay."
by AMANDA PALLESCHI AND MONICA VON DOBENECK, Of The Patriot-News .
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