Teachers may reap rewards on payday during the upcoming school year, thanks to increasingly flush state coffers and the political dynamics of an election year. Governors from both political parties, in many of the 36 states holding gubernatorial elections in the fall of 2006, are urging their legislatures to raise pay for teachers or give them cash incentives to improve their own skills and boost their students' performance. The proposals include across-the-board raises in Alabama and New Mexico and a hike in the minimum salary in Arizona. The governors of Alaska and Mississippi are pitching employee bonuses tied to gains in student achievement. The teacher-pay proposals in a dozen or more states are possible because balance sheets are healthier than at any time since the economic downturn that ravaged state revenues starting in 2001. Forty-plus states are collecting more money than anticipated in the current fiscal year, and two dozen are raising revenue projections for fiscal 2007, which begins July 1, 2006 in most states. The proposals are also a sign that many governors seeking re-election hope to woo educators at the ballot box and impress voters in general with efforts to reward teachers and improve schools.