PROBATION WORKERS DUE $4.1 MILLION IN BACK PAY

Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan has ruled the state owes Missouri’s probation and parole workers $4.1 million in back pay because the Missouri General Assembly illegally exempted unionized employees from pay raises granted to other state workers. Callahan further ruled the state owes more than $300,000 in taxes on the back pay from 2004 to 2007.

However, Callahan didn’t order to the state to provide the owed compensation because to do so would be a judicial infringement on the legislature’s appropriations power. In the April 9 decision, Callahan said he couldn’t compel the legislature to appropriate the money because “a court may not order what it cannot enforce,” The Associated Press reported in an April 17 story. The state budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which is still in the legislative process, doesn’t include money for the back compensation.