Nearly 70 current and retired Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers are visiting legislators and urging them to pass a bill to give them a pay raise.
The troopers gathered at the Capitol Tuesday and encouraged lawmakers to revive a bill that would give a 16 percent pay raise to all Department of Public Safety employees, including troopers.
Under the measure by State Rep. Jeff Hickman (R-Fairview), the entry-level pay for a state trooper would jump from $38,000 to $44,194.
Both the House and Senate unanimously passed the bill, but funding for the pay raise was not included in a budget agreement reached by Gov. Mary Fallin and Republican legislative leaders.
The bill currently remains in a conference committee, but without the funding in the budget it is likely to remain there for the rest of the session.
The measure would cost about $7.3 million.
