FRANKFORT — Stay alive and get five? Maybe not this year. Gov. Paul Patton says he and his budget writers are evaluating how much of a pay raise state government can give its employees in a new, tight-money biennium.

        In most years, state employees get a 5 percent raise — thus the “stay alive” expression. Mr. Patton does not categorically rule it out this time, though it seems unlikely.

        “We're scraping out every barrel in this town” for money, he said in an interview.

        The chairman of the Senate committee that handles state government matters, Republican Sen. Albert Robinson of London, also said the budget picture “looks very bleak at this time.”

        There is a new factor, the effect of which is ambiguous, as the 2002 General Assembly nears its opening.

        More than 11,000 state workers will be represented by labor unions on an advisory council Mr. Patton created by executive order last May.

        The workers are in four groups, separated by job category. Three groups have elected to be represented by the nation's largest public employee union — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

        The groups represent prison guards and certain other law-enforcement types, social workers, and laborers and tradesmen.

        The fourth group, made up of health care workers in state hospitals, aligned itself with a joint venture of AFSCME and the Service Employees International Union.

        Mr. Patton's order creating the Governor's Employee Advisory Council set forth nine employee categories, so the council could have as many as nine seats. Five employee groups have yet to petition for a union election.

        In signing his order opening the door to union elections, Mr. Patton promised only that the council would have his ear. The order does not permit collective bargaining, though Mr. Patton says he favors it and would grant it if he could.

        The practical effect of the council? “It would have been better if we were in the position of increasing employee compensation, but I don't see that case,” Mr. Patton said. “I'm sure there will be issues they want to discuss, and we'll listen to them.”

        Some legislators, especially Senate Republicans, criticized Mr. Patton's use of an executive order.

        Mr. Robinson said he thought the order would have to be ratified in some way by the General Assembly. “If it's assigned to my committee, it will not fare very well,” he said. “I feel it would be unconstitutional.

        “It will be chaos and a union foot in the door, and there will be no good come from it,” Mr. Robinson said.

        Mr. Patton disagreed with Mr. Robinson about whether his order required legislative action. “There's no way they can prevent me from deciding that I will talk to people in a certain way,” he said. “The question is, what will the next governor do? The choice will be up to the next governor.”

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