Posted on 03/05/2009 10:17:27 AM PST by Lorianne
After watching friends and colleagues lose their jobs, their retirement savings and increasingly their hope, I've got only one thing to say to any state worker worried about paying more for their health insurance: Cry me a river.
Here in Dane County, where a quarter of the workforce draws paychecks from the government, one can sense the growing rift between the public and private sector as the economy worsens. And we're doing better than just about everywhere else in Wisconsin.
It's hard to name a business that hasn't felt the pinch. Nameplate firms from Erdman & Associates to Stoughton Trailers have been shedding jobs as fast as their HR departments can put together the paperwork.
But head down to the UW-Madison campus, GEF II or the City-County Building, and it's like the Great Recession isn't happening. The conferences, meetings, long lunches and paid sabbaticals go on as usual.
So when Gov. Jim Doyle announced last week that everyone in Wisconsin was going to share in the sacrifice, those already out of work were wondering where are the furloughs, the layoffs, the pay cuts?
California, Maryland, Arizona and Kentucky are already furloughing state employees, including public university staffers. Scores of other states with budgets in far better shape than Wisconsin's are considering having workers take time off without pay.
At Iowa State University, four top-paid members of the athletic department took one-week furloughs to help the school save $50,000 and offset state budget cuts. Among those participating was Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard, a former top aide to UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez.
"Our gesture will, hopefully, help our university during this difficult time," Pollard said in a December news release when the furloughs were announced.
But there's no talk of furloughs in Wisconsin, despite a budget hole so big, even $2 billion in federal bailout funds will only plug it for another two years -- or until after the next election.
Doyle spokesman Lee Sensenbrenner said the governor did consider furloughs as one potential way of addressing the state's $5.7 billion budget deficit, but "it's an option he would like to avoid."
"He doesn't want to furlough teachers and cancel classes," Sensenbrenner said.
Doyle's promise to "freeze pay" also rings somewhat hollow, since more than half of the 69,000 state workers have negotiated pay raises in their new contracts. Some of these raises will take effect in June 2009 as part of a "backloading" deal cut last spring.
Some observers have made a big stink out of state legislators getting a $5,000 pay raise and rapped lawmakers for not setting a better example during these tough times.
Imagine the savings if all public employees in the state took a $1,000 pay cut. Anyone with a salary above $50,000 could take a $2,000 cut.
With some nearly 300,000 state and local government workers -- including law enforcement officers, teachers, firefighters and UW employees -- you're talking real savings here: $500 million, if my back-of-the-envelope calculations are accurate.
Of course, none of this is going to happen with public employee unions in control and politicians afraid to tackle the real issues. They're all drawing checks from the same pay station.
But if anyone with a UW or state job wants to step down because times have gotten a little tight, give me a call. I've got 500 people with resumes in hand.
to the contrary, they are listening to geniuses like Paul Krugman make the arguement that keeping every single, solitary government worker employed is what will stave off Great Depression Part II.
Today my company just cut salaries 10%.
Employees at Arizona’s state universities have to take a certain number of furloughed days between now and the end of the fiscal year. It’s less money, but I still have my job and I get a day off every pay period.
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