text: Regardless to how anyone here feels...state legislators can vote all day long to take away merit increase but the fact if the matter is that it is illegal for them to do so....the state has a legally binding contract in which these merit increase are guaranteed ...should the state seek to blatantly violate the terms of the there collective bargaining agreement each Union has the right to sue the state of Alaska for those compensation and more ...and these unions will win these law suits as the state has no ground or right to supersede these legally binding agreements...ultimately they may take the merit increase away for a short while, but the state will end up spending a lot more money in legal fees and man hours plus they will end up retro paying every state employee for these merit increases...they have to know this ....it is not complicated ...so unless they are truly idiotic they will abandon the HB and wait to renagotiate term with each new contract whe they come up...