Oct

06

2008

Let’s help poor Gov Lynch as he struggles to save money…

by Doug

state workers

Hey, let’s ask these guys…  

It has been widely reported that Gov Do-Nuthin’ Lynch is looking to state employees for suggestions of ways to help the state save some $100 million. While we all know that this is a means by which he is trying to do his job without actually having to make decisions for himself, it does make one wonder why he simply didn’t listen to those warning that the budget was too big when they created the damn thing in the first place. The Union Leader has the story:

Lynch met with heads of state agencies yesterday in a first round of talks aimed at closing an estimated $100 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that ends in nine months. Lynch said he wants to get ideas into practice as soon as possible, but will present a package to the full Legislative Fiscal Committee in November.

State Employees Association president Gary Smith and his staff met with Lynch, too. Smith said Lynch wants to see money-saving ideas from workers who know the details of their jobs.

"Basically, we all said, let’s figure out ways to find some savings and live within the budget and avert any layoffs," Smith said.

"We’re looking for ways that we can work together so workers can continue to deliver high quality services and keep working," Ward said.

And therein lies the problem: With labor being a huge chunk of the budget, when serious cuts need to be made, in a logical world, it would be among the top areas to look. But my guess is that the Guv will be hard pressed to find many employees willing to make the suggestion that his/her job isn’t necessary and therefore ought to be cut. And, according to Tom Fahey in the NH Sunday News, layoffs would likely

"be a last resort."

Of course they would. We all know that at the end of it all, government protects its own above all else. And besides, making cuts and/ or tightening belts like the private sector is just way too cumbersome. Again writes Fahey,

Proposing layoffs runs the risk of delays because of job-protection language in the State Employees Association’s contract with the state. Seniority rights under the contract can allow a secretary at the Department of Safety, for example, to move over to Health and Human Services and bump someone with less seniority out of a job there.

Asking people to take unpaid time off as a way to save money isn’t likely to go over too well when oil and gas prices are sky high.

Furloughs, another way to get at staffing, can’t be mandated under a state Supreme Court decision that left then-Gov. Judd Gregg on the short end in 1993. The court told Gregg that he couldn’t order appointed officials to take unpaid time off, either, since state law only allowed them to be removed for malfeasance.

The way layoffs work under the union contract is that workers with the least seniority are let go first.

Denis Parker, former executive director of SEA, said the whole process can quickly bog down, between comparing levels of experience and ability, time on the job and transfers between departments.

"By the time you get it all straightened out, you might have been better off selling pencils on the street," Parker said.

That’s right, dog-gone it. Better instead to have ordinary taxpaying citizens selling pencils on the street!

Why should Gov Do-Nuthin’ Lynch and unionized state employees have to shoulder the burden of saving money all by themselves? I’m sure that ‘Grok readers are as sympathetic as I am to their plight and desire to help them in any way we can…

My vote for saving the state money is an "all of the above" approach. Layoffs. Make employees pay a portion of their health insurance. Another, perhaps more immediate place to save is the state vehicle pool. How many times over statewide are there roads like Route 106  featuring the veritable "choo-choo train" of white vehicles with the familiar state sticker (not to mention all the orange gas-guzzling DOT pickup trucks, too, along with state trooper cars) both in the morning and again at afternoon commuter times? Can’t these people drive to work in their own cars like the rest of us?

Please… help Governor Do-Nuthin’ Lynch and the state’s overburdened employees save $100 million by offering your suggestions in the "comment" section below. Who knows– maybe we could go beyond that number and save some REAL money…Wink

 

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  • mer

    Buy more shovels. 4 guys and 1 shovel? 3 Shovels, can’t total more than 75 bucks. Make them all work, they can get the job done quicker. Time is money. :)

  • http://www.granitegrok.com doug

    By the way, the drain that the guys in the picture were fixing started to sink and depress no more than 6 months after all the time and “hard work” spent on the project. Perhaps if it had been contracted out privately, it would have been done cheaper and, in the event of failure, could have enabled the state to perhaps get it fixed under some warrantee…

  • Ann Marie

    I have a few ideas, get rid of the “Follow the Child” State Education program that does nothing to help our kids academically and lines to pockets of Educrats! This would save us over a million dollars. It’s a feel good program that needs to GO.
    Having lived in 3 other states, I can’t figure out why we have to pay a police officer to stand around at construction sites. I’ve lived in states where the construction company manned these sites and didn’t have to have a police officer.
    Where they are truly needed, fine, but if other states can manage these project without having to pay police officers, why can’t we?

  • Harriet E. Cady

    Lay off appraiser in Fish and Game
    Lay off three of the five archelogist at the state historical agency.
    Open Archives for genealogist on Sat. and Sunday by rescheduling present workers hours and charge $5 admission fees.
    Make better accountability of appraisers tie out of office in transportation.
    Check on how many Health and Human service workers are on the job or at stores shopping when they are supposed to be seeing clients.
    Do inventory of law books and where they are and how many sets the state has bought.
    Cut seminars and travel for all state workers with a required written essay as to why a seminar is needed and what benefit the state will derive from sending a DES worker to Texas or a state employee to California.
    These are some abuses I know of

  • judy paris

    Get rid of the state employees labor union altogether including all unionized teachers and start over.
    Give every state employee a lie detector test and find out what they really do all day long.

  • http://www.mcguire4house.com Dan McGuire

    Eliminate tolls. This saves the taxpayer $100M and costs the DOT $50M because the collection process (toll booths, collectors, EZ-Pass, etc) is so inefficient. Replace the $50M by raising the gas tax by that amount. Net benefit: $50M plus less idling, pollution, traffic on weekends, privacy, …
    Similarly, either eliminate car inspections as many states have, or go to every-other-year. Savings of $30 per car every other year, so maybe $10M or $15M per year total.

  • NH

    First get rid of Lionel Tracey and the rest of the kooks in the education department and give back the $1.2M they spent on Follow the Child.
    Next, return $12M of that LCHIP money to the general fund.
    Next, DEFUND Planned Parenthood since I don’t give my permission for my tax dollars to be used for it, nor do I approve of 11 -year olds being able to use abortions as birth control, then kicked PP out of NH.
    Finally, Lynch needs to step down and take his DEMOCRAT legislature with him.
    They have left us with a possible $500M deficit and raised 25 new taxes.
    They are ruining New Hampshire.

  • http://myspace.com/caacp Jean Coutu

    Hi Doug,
    The CAACP has been fighting for years in Court on many rights related issues with both state & municiple public officials in N.H. There is one issue that could save the State millions comes to mind. The real reason the state motto is live free or die is that it serves the public officials in NH rather than the citizens whom it was intended. NH has ethics laws like the rest of the States, but, unlike other states NH has no ethics penalties laws or means to enforce them. So, public officials are operating on the honor system. As a result, the costs to the State, municipalities and municiple insurers is staggering due to corrupt practices with law suites. Simply put,if the Governor ordered the enforcement of public officials oaths to office and to the Constitution, the money saved in taxes would likely pay the entire State budget with rebate checks to its citizens!
    Thank You, Jean M. Coutu, CAACP Chairman

  • http://www.granitegrok.com doug

    Hear! Hear!, Jean!

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