A Georgia state employee has filed a civil suit accusing Gov. Sonny Perdue of taking away employees' pay raises.
William Estill sued Perdue and the head of every state agency in Fulton County Superior Court on Monday. He is asking for class-action status.
Estill, a state employee, claims that the General Assembly and Perdue approved a 2.5 percent pay raise for most state employees in 2008 that should have taken effect Jan. 1. Employees, however, never saw the increased pay because lawmakers and Perdue this spring agreed to defer the increase to help cover a deepening state budget crisis.
Bert Brantley, Perdue's communications director, said state law is clear that the governor had the authority to withhold funds in the first six months of the fiscal year. Lawmakers then returned in January and adopted a supplemental state budget that did away with the pay raises.
"This lawsuit is a waste of the state funds that will be required to defend it, in addition to being a waste of time, effort and costs of the court which are all in short supply," Brantley said.
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