GraniteGrok

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...