This years legislative session wrapped up on Thursday, March 12th, and it concluded with the supplemental budget passing both chambers with a couple positives.
First, all three WPEA state contracts are approved and funded in the budget as passed by the Legislature.

• What does this mean?
  • Our contracts have one last stop — the Governor's desk. Governor Ferguson will be signing the budget into law in the next couple of weeks.
  • Once that is done, our contracts will go into effect July 1, 2026. That means:
    • 5% increase on July 1, 2026
    • 3% backpay for those working from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026
    • Class specific salary adjustments
    • Wildfire suppression pay
    • & more.

Second, this budget restores $60 million dollars for 1168 wildland fire funding at DNR.

• What does this mean?
  • This money will be used to directly support Wildfire Response, Forest Restoration, and Community Resilience measures (such as grants to smaller communities)

The final budget does include a proviso that would ask the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) to conduct a study on reducing the redundancies and expenses that do not directly correlate to student success. While this doesn’t pursue the closure of any one college, this is something we will be tracking throughout the year.
Join us at UNITY to learn more about what our contracts being funded means, and what that looks like for you! If you are unable to join us, please reach out to [email protected] with any questions.