Carcieri again turns to workers for budget savings

First, there were layoffs; then Gov. Donald L. Carcieri tried to institute furloughs; now it’s days off without pay.
In an effort to ease Rhode Island’s severe budget problems, Carcieri said last week that he plans to shut down state government for a total of 12 days in fiscal 2010 in order to help close a $67.8 million hole in the state budget.
The closures – which would mean all but essential services would be unavailable to the public on those days – would save $21.6 million if all branches of government follow the plan. That would amount to a 4.6 percent pay cut for most state workers.
And it doesn’t end there.
Carcieri also is asking the General Assembly to give him another “tool” to help him manage the fiscal crisis that has seen the state’s tax revenue decline to unforeseen levels.
The governor wants the authority to reduce or withhold state appropriations already approved by the General Assembly. It’s a power that was stripped from the governor’s office in 1996, the Carcieri administration said.
Carcieri already has identified $32.5 million in local aid – the fourth-quarter payment of motor vehicle tax reimbursements to cities and town – that he wants to keep in the state’s coffers to help close the shortfall, but also to force local government into cost-cutting measures such as regionalization.
He refused last week to say what other appropriations he would seek to cancel. “We’re going to need some tools to manage our way through this time period,” Carcieri said during a press conference at the Statehouse.
The governor’s proposal immediately drew the ire of union leaders and municipal officials, who have already endured significant state aid cuts in the $7.81 billion state budget.
J. Michael Downey, president of Council 94, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, said the shutdown days amounted to the governor overriding the labor contract “to take more pay from the members we represent.”
George Nee, secretary-treasurer of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO union, told public radio station WRNI he believed Carcieri’s plan “would be illegal” under his members’ existing contracts. “It is a unilateral cut in employees’ pay,” Nee said.
The shutdown plan is the latest attempt by Carcieri to reduce the state’s personnel costs without getting a nod from union leaders. Hundreds of state jobs have been eliminated by the Carcieri administration since 2008. And with about 13,000 full-time-equivalent positions, the Carcieri administration says the state’s payroll is at its smallest since officials started tracking FTE counts in the early 1990s.
In proposed midyear changes to the 2008 state budget and in his 2009 budget plan, Carcieri assumed savings by having all state employees take numerous unpaid days offs, but the administration and the unions representing state workers failed to sign a new contract until late last year, after fiscal 2008 had ended and a 2009 budget has been approved. The new labor agreement contained a provision for one furlough day for Council 94 employees.
Carcieri said his latest plan was brought about in part because of the General Assembly’s 2010 state budget – which he signed in June despite calling it “ill-conceived” – contained $67.8 million in unspecified cuts.
In addition, the state’s tax revenue has declined severely as the economy continues to sag.
Carcieri said revenue had declined from $3.4 billion in 2008 to $3 billion in 2009, well below forecasts.
He has steadfastly refused to raise broad-based taxes to boost revenue.
The administration had been talking with state labor union leaders about possible concessions, such as unpaid days offs that would eliminate the need for at least some of the shutdowns.
The governor described furloughs as fairer to both state workers and taxpayers because government agencies would continue to operate, and the loss of pay would be spread more evenly through the state’s payroll.
The state would save $1.4 million on every day it closes, but it would save $2.2 million for every furlough day, Carcieri said.
But Downey said the labor unions have already made some “tough decisions to help out.”
The four-year contract with Council 94, signed in October, while raising wages 8.5 percent over its final three years also increases employee health care costs.
“We have a signed contract by myself and the governor,” said Downey, whose Council 94 represents about 4,000 state workers. “And we believe the contract should be lived up to.”
The first scheduled shutdown day is Sept.4.
As of last week, both the legislature and the court system had not committed to closing for those days. •