The RTD’s Jeff Schapiro has long had sympathetic ears for state government employees. In his pre-Halloween column, Jeff trots out all sorts of scary monsters to rile the workforce as much as possible before the election.
You see, the Governor, to his credit, is talking about the possibility of additional cuts to the state’s budget. Those cuts, while contingencies and not realities, don’t stop Jeff’s scare wagon from rolling right toward the time clock. On the matter of layoffs, which the Governor can’t rule out, but will work to avoid, Jeff says there really aren’t that many state workers to begin with, at least compared to neighboring states:
…focus on classified workers: troopers who nab speeders, engineers who design roads, wildlife officers who patrol woods and waterways, janitors who mop the floors of hospital wards, dining halls and dormitories.
Their numbers, stacked against those of other states, are modest, undercutting claims by anti-government Republicans to whom career politician McDonnell pays lip service, that Virginia’s bureaucracy is too big and too expensive.
Virginia is 28th among the 50 states in state government employment, with 1.6 full-time workers per 100 residents, according to the General Assembly’s investigative arm, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. The average is 1.8.
Putting aside the raw numbers and averages, as opposed to looking at productivity, Virginia’s bureaucracy is extremely expensive. Perhaps not necessarily at the moment, but when one looks at the unfunded pension liability for that modest workforce, the costs balloon nicely. Depending upon the measures used, that hole is anywhere between $14 billion and $50 billion. Granted, the underfunding is a result of political decisions made by Democrats and Republicans over many years. Neither side can escape blame for shorting the pension fund. But it’s an expensive gap someone will have to fill (and I’m looking at you).
But there was one small issue in Jeff’s column that bears a second look. On the matter of where else the Governor might look to save costs, there’s the issue of employee leave:
…proposed restrictions, rejected by the legislature as punitive, on how and when workers redeem for cash unused time off. The bill for that is about $330 million.
Fortunately, Virginia Statehouse News looked deeper into the issue and found that not only is the unfunded liability $330 million, but the annual liability is a touch over $34 million. That ain’t beanbag. But it only begins to touch the surface of what just about everyone agrees is an administrative nightmare:
When employees retire, they can cash out up to 336 of earned vacation hours for 25-year employees and 25 percent of accrued sick time. The state pays out that earned time off at the workers’ current pay rate, which ends up costing the state more for higher-paid employees, Wilson said.
Different groups of employees accrue earned time off at different rates, creating a paperwork nightmare for managers who track and approve the time off, according to DHRM.
In addition to the various rates, the state offers more than 20 time-off options, such as leave for bone marrow or organ donors, according to DHRM.
Taking earned time off is not only complicated by a complex system governed by federal and state laws as well as policies, but also a two-year statewide hiring freeze still in effect.
This is a system crying out for change, and the Governor’s office knows it (untangling this knot is on the agenda of the Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring).
But it’s also another symptom of how even the most modest of government workforces can rack up huge, unfunded costs. If the Governor is able to trim those expenses, he’ll have done the commonwealth a lasting service.
