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- Title:
- May 19, 2021 | One-Time Incentive Payments Given to Most Employees
- Date:
- 2021-05-19
- Category:
- Presidential Memos
- Harvested from:
- https://perma.cc/H79Z-9K2U
- Type:
- text
- Digital Format:
- text/html
- Reference Link:
- https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/fridayletter/letters/president_memo_2021-05-19.html
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May 19, 2021 | One-Time Incentive Payments Given to Most Employees
TO: University of Idaho Faculty and Staff
FROM: Scott Green, President
DATE: May 19, 2021
SUBJECT: One-Time Incentive Payments Given to Most Employees
The financial challenges we faced in FY21 were unprecedented. On top of the FY21 permanent base budget reductions we were planning for during FY20, the state required a 5% appropriations holdback. The impact of the pandemic on tuition and other revenues was difficult to predict. In response, the university imposed a mandatory employee furlough, in addition to a hiring freeze, while at the same time implementing the planned across-the-board permanent base budget cuts aimed at realigning our expense budget with pre-pandemic revenue levels.
Our Vandal Family came together to take, head-on, the challenges before us. For the second year in a row, you went beyond what we asked by saving more than budgeted. It wasn’t easy and hard decisions were made. But your hard work, responsible spending and unflappable ability to take on more work created savings well beyond what we expected. We have six weeks left in the fiscal year and will have final results later this summer, but we are confident you will stay the course and we will end the year having made meaningful progress on our reserve deficit.
The work you each have done to help us address our financial situation and put us on a long-term path to budget stability has not gone unnoticed. It has enabled us to meet our state-required holdback targets without savings from the mandatory furlough. Therefore, I am pleased to announce each board-appointed employee on payroll as of Dec. 26, 2020, and remaining on the payroll as of May 15, 2021, will receive a lump-sum incentive payment equal to their reduction in pay from the mandatory furlough or salary reduction. As an added note, to prevent the appearance of any potential conflict of interest, Gabby and I will donate my incentive payment to the university.
The one-time incentive payment will be distributed in the May 28 paycheck. These payments will be taxed as earnings in accordance with the bi-weekly tax withholding tables published by the IRS and the State of Idaho.
Answers to some basic questions are available. If, after visiting this page, you have other questions about your specific situation, please send an email to incentivepay@uidaho.edu. Staff will monitor and respond to messages within 24 hours. Please do not call the Payroll Office directly as they need to focus on processing these incentive payments in time to meet payroll deadlines.
Thank you for the work you do for our university on the rise. You did what Vandals do best — you made a difference.
Go Vandals!
Scott Green
President