State Giving 278 Workers Layoff Notice

Gov. Easley directed his top managers on Monday to lay off 278 state employees whose jobs have been targeted for elimination in spending plans under negotiation in the General Assembly.

Most of the employees to be laid off work in the university system or in the Department of Health and Human Services. All are aware that their jobs have been recommended for elimination, Easley said. They will receive 30 days’ notice today so agencies can begin saving money more quickly than if they waited for lawmakers to pass a final budget, he said.

The governor also announced the elimination of 609 vacant positions, another legislative proposal.

“Like any business or family, state government must live within its means,” the governor said in a written statement. “These layoffs are part of what we must do to begin to get a balanced budget.”

But the governor did not release a list of the positions being eliminated, and he said some of those jobs targeted by lawmakers will be spared because his managers have deemed them “vital.” As a result, there may be uncertainty among employees this morning as they await word on their status.

Easley’s announcement came on the eve of a widely publicized anti-tax “tea party” scheduled for this afternoon in front of the General Assembly. Several conservative groups organized the rally to oppose raising taxes to balance the state budget, as Easley and several other Democratic politicians have proposed.

Some questioned the timing of the governor’s announcement, and saw it as an attempt to overshadow the tea party and to lend credence to his position that a tax increase is necessary to avoid deep cuts in government programs.

“That’s horrible, and it’s bad management practice, and the governor should show more leadership than that,” said Dana Cope, executive director of the State Employees Association. “You put into question those who may not have received an official notice. It creates anxiety and fear of the unknown. Once again, it’s simply a question of the governor using state employees as a political football or a tool. It’s a shame. It’s not real leadership.”

Citizens for a Sound Economy, an anti-tax group and one of the tea party’s organizers, issued a statement Monday congratulating the governor for eliminating 609 vacant positions but questioning the need for layoffs when there is still wasteful spending to be cut from state government.

“We question the necessity of laying people off when there are sacred cows in state government that have not even been considered,” the statement said.

As for the suggestion that politics may be involved in the timing of Monday’s announcement, Easley spokeswoman Cari Hepp said the timing had more to do with the fact that state government is required to give employees 30 days’ notice before eliminating their jobs. To make the layoffs effective by the end of August – and begin saving money with September’s payroll – the notices had to go out by today, she said.

Besides, Hepp said, “Managers have had conversations with employees, and these are cuts that have been discussed publicly in the House and Senate. There shouldn’t be any big surprises.”

The state employs 226,284 people, including workers in the university and community college systems. Workers’ pay represents the largest expenditure in the state’s budget of more than $ 14 billion.

The last major job-reduction initiative came in 1995, when lawmakers eliminated roughly one-third of all jobs in the Department of Public Instruction. But officials managed to find vacant positions for many workers who wanted to remain employed.

In this case, employees can apply for vacancies elsewhere in state government, but because Easley’s hiring freeze is still in effect, only positions deemed “critical” by agency heads will be filled, Hepp said.

Hepp said the estimated savings from Easley’s announcement is more than $ 28 million per year. But because the layoffs will not be effective until Sept. 1, two months into the fiscal year, the first-year savings will be less than that.

And that figure does not include the one-time cost of roughly $ 10.4 million in severance payments, Hepp said.

Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, said the layoffs are regrettable but necessary.

“Unless things change and we have some additional revenue, there will be more cuts,” said Sen. Fountain Odom, an Appropriations Committee co-chairman from Charlotte. “We have no choice, and I think it’s a very sad day.”

Rep. David Redwine, an Appropriations Committee co-chairman from Ocean Isle Beach, said legislators reminded the administration that it could start saving money even though the state does not have a new budget.

“I guess he was hoping, like we all were, that we’d get a budget passed quickly,” he said.