The Senate passed a three-year Social Security income tax phase out as well as pay raises for certain state employees on Saturday evening, during the final day of the 2024 Regular Session.
The body withdrew its committee amendment to House Bill 4880 and returned the bill to the form it was in when it came over from the House of Delegates on Feb. 22.
In 2019, the Legislature passed a bill cutting the income tax on Social Security benefits for the state’s lowest earners — those making less than $100,000 filing jointly and $50,000 for a single person — over three years.
This bill eliminates the tax for everyone else, also over a three-year period. The tax will be cut by 35 percent this year — retroactive to Jan. 1 — and 65 percent in 2025, with a complete elimination in 2026 and beyond.
House Bill 4883 gives pay raises to state workers whose pay scales are in state code. That includes state police personnel and public school educators. State police personnel will receive a $2,900 annual salary increase. Teachers will receive a $2,460 annual pay increase, with school service personnel receiving an additional $140 a month.
The bill empowers state agencies with the spending authority to give all other state employees pay raises if the money is available to do so. There is no guarantee those employees will receive a pay raise.
These measures are are big components of the 2025 general revenue budget, which also passed Saturday night in the form of Senate Bill 200.
The Senate has adjourned Sine Die
