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Cuts ain’t easy

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Illinois

* I told subscribers that this was coming some time ago. Gov. Quinn’s plan to hire new workers is relatively easy pickings for legislative budget-cutters looking to spare education and other programs from Quinn’s proposed cuts…

As members of the House and Senate work to piece together a spending plan before they are scheduled to leave town on May 31, the governor’s push to hire new prison guards, state troopers and welfare workers is being weighed against his plan to reduce funding for other state programs.

In the Senate, for example, Democrats who control the chamber say they plan to eliminate one of three requested training classes for Illinois State Police cadets.

Senators also may reduce the number of new workers Quinn wants in the overcrowded state prison system, said state Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, who is helping to craft the budget blueprint in the Senate.

Cuts to Quinn’s request could be even deeper in the House.

“The governor wants a 10 percent increase in the Department of Corrections and we’re looking to cut the department by 3 percent,” said state Rep. David Reis, R-Willow Hill.

The governor said last year that closing Illinois prisons would mean he could transfer workers around and save the state money. Then he comes back and asked for a huge increase in its budget and lots more workers. Background from an older Tom Kasich piece…

Under Quinn’s budget, staffing would be up at almost every department and agency next year. Compared with actual headcounts in fiscal year 2012, it would be up by 42 employees at the Department of Aging, 15 at the Department of Agriculture, 83 at Central Management Services, 17 at Commerce and Economic Opportunity, 231 at the Department of Natural Resources, 182 at the Department of Corrections (including three more positions at the Danville Correctional Center), 904 at the Department of Human Services, 88 at the Department of Insurance, 30 at the lottery department, 384 at the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, 294 at the Department of Revenue, 197 at the Illinois State Police, 147 at the Department of Transportation, 29 at the Environmental Protection Agency, and 60 at the State Board of Education.

The administration says overtime costs are so high that they need more workers at DoC and the State Police.

* But the push to spare cuts to other programs could hurt DoC…

“How you deal with that $140 million [to pay back salary hikes] will impact (the budget), and they haven’t figured that out yet,” said Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley. “Do you treat the back wages like old bills? Then they just have to wait in line because they are an old bill. If you are going to pay them (now), then you have to cut.”

Most of the workers who didn’t get the raises are employed at the departments of Corrections, Natural Resources and Human Services.

“Corrections would probably bear the brunt of it,” Mautino said. “It would mean maybe laying off 1,200, maybe closing two or three more facilities.”

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 9:37 am

Comments

I noticed that Oklahoma was in the process of accessing its rainy day fund because of the tornado damage at Moore. Maybe we could have one of those if we closed a few more prisons and cut back on having so many state police. But then I guess we would need to pay the billons already owed to the vendors that do business with the state.

Comment by nieva Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 9:48 am
904 at DHS? What will they be doing? DHS always seemed like a big pork farm to me, awash in middle managers, jobs which are becoming obsolete in the non-governmental world. And many of the frontline jobs could probably be done by a computer now–do people really need food stamp workers or cash grant workers these days? Better to spend the money on the recipients, not the porky bureaucracy.

Comment by cassandra Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 9:58 am
–The administration says overtime costs are so high that they need more workers at DoC and the State Police.–

If that’s the case, I would think it would be pretty easy to crunch the numbers and demonstrate that it would save money in the long run.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:03 am
Couldn’t resist …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anpjEN9KeJ0

Comment by RNUG Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:04 am
cassandra @ 9:58 am:

Suspect those are actual caseworkers …

If that’s the case, I’m in favor because that is the front line in controlling waste, fraud and abuse of the programs. Right now the case load is so high they can barely check on their clients once a year, let alone ensure compliance.

Comment by RNUG Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:10 am
I work at one of these agencies. Understaffing is getting to the point of officer safety. Wish they would ask us middle managers how WE would make cuts!! Start with CMS. Agree with the need for cuts, just wish the people who have to deal with the decisions had a seat at the table. CMS facility manager hired a HVAC vendor for our building from 5 hours away! When we were in charge of our buildings we used local vendors who were cheaper and didn’t need 10 hours of driving time for a service call. I could go on and on….

Comment by Former Merit Comp Slave Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:10 am
RNUG, Did you know the ad leading into the song was a Koch brothers anti-Poe commercial?

Comment by Norseman Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:11 am
good taste, RNUG….you never cease to amaze.

this is just the start of many similar predicaments which will occur if Illinois doesn’t get its house in order. it will grow steadily worse until finally the necessary adjustments are made. its just a matter of time, but as always, the earlier you treat cancer, the better.

Comment by biased observer Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:13 am
the situation will develop where state workers start to grow more worried about there job remaining in existence, rather than their pension remaining intact unscathed.

if necessary changes aren’t made soon (significant pension reform, revenue increases) this little story posted by rich will seem trivial.

Comment by biased observer Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:16 am
Norseman,

Yes, it’s one of several ads in rotation. Thought it added another touch of irony …

Comment by RNUG Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:17 am
@Cassandra:

You’ve posted this often — this idea that computers can somehow magically “replace” those pesky front-line workers.

You do realize that in order for computers to compute, you must then replace those front-line workers with IT staff — staff which usually commands a higher than front-line workers you’re replacing. Moreover, you can’t usually just one day have front-line staff and the next day computers in place of the staff. There’s planning, software, consultants — the whole nine yards.

I’m not sure how old you are — or how long you’ve been out of the loop (a long time judging by your endless comments about computers replacing staff) — but integrating systems into a workflow isn’t like you set up an old ENIAC on a chair and start feeding it punch cards while it beeps and gurgles and spits out stuff on ticker tape for the white-shirted guys in Hagar slacks to “analyze.”

Comment by Frenchie Mendoza Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:20 am
I think the feds require state workers process food stamp applications.

Comment by retired and fed up Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:23 am
The big question in my mind is what plan, if any, will the GA approve for the pension problem? Without a plan that increases taxes directly or indirectly, cuts pension benefits, and/or cuts other spending to pay for the pension liability, no additional hiring appears to be realistic to me. Even with a pension plan in place, more hiring will probably be out of place as the GA likes to ‘backload’ programs whenever possible. If I am wrong then I feel that if there is some extra money available today then it should be spent on paying the current multi billion dollar backlog of unpaid bills rather than hiring more employees.

Comment by Small Town Taxpayer Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:24 am
Old enough to have several adult children who work in private companies. And young enough to pretty much conduct my life on my smartphone. And living in a community whose local elementary schools are shifting to paperless classrooms.

Of course there will be costs. But young people growing up these days expect they will be using these systems. The state bureaucracies need to catch up. Not hire more paper pushers.

Comment by cassandra Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:29 am
cassandra, I don’t work for DHS, but perhaps you should research more what DHS employees do before classifying them all as paper pushers.

Here are the main areas they work in. I’m not sure the work in those areas can be replaced by computers.

Alcoholism & Substance Abuse
Developmental Disabilities
Family & Community Services
Mental Health
Rehabilitation Services
Administration

At http://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx?item=29758 you can get more information about what DHS does in each of those areas.

Comment by Joe M Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:37 am
I didn’t say all the work could be replaced by computers. And actually, I believe much of the direct clinical work and caregiving is done by contractors, not state employees.

But in light of the long-term expense of hiring 900 plus state workers for this agency alone, I’d take a close look at “Administration.” I’d also calculate how much it might cost taxpayers to sustain these hundreds of new positions over, say, 20 years.

It won’t be cheap.

Comment by cassandra Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:49 am
You know i thought that DNR was close to being self funded at one time. They are supposed to receive the fees from hunting and fishing liscenses, park fees, as well as a portion of the FOID fee. As i understand it it wasn’t until Blago started doing his fund sweeps that DNR became a problem.

As for Corrections i wonder if anyone has considered any other practices to be changed short of staff layoffs? Could be a Change in inmate scheduling i.e. earlier lock ups etc? Housing Inmates closer to the county they committed their crimes at least until all active cases are resolved? After all Doc at times makes trips with one inmate two staff from South of Springfield to Cook County for a court appearence that may last 20 minutes. How much would housing that inmate at Stateville or Pontiac save?

Comment by Mason born Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:51 am
For what it is worth, Illinois has the fewest number of state employees per capita, out of all 50 states. And state staffing levels are now the lowest they have been in at least the last 25 years.

Comment by Joe M Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:01 am
Revenue is still too low! When will our elected State officials get real and fund the State government obligations 100%? How about now; today! Create a different funding model for State government.

Comment by Nickypiii Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:04 am
As the state’s only non-partisan prison watchdog, the John Howard Association regularly monitors Illinois’ prisons. With almost 50,000 inmates in a system designed for about 32,000, IDOC is more crowded than it has ever been. In our work, we have not visited a prison in recent years that did not suffer from a significant lack of resources and staffing. From our perspective, IDOC cannot absorb more budget cuts without endangering inmates, staff, and the general public. If legislators want to find ways to cut IDOC’s budget, they need to stop passing meaningless sentence enhancements and start proposing smart, safe, and cost-effective comprehensive prison reform like we have seen in states like Georgia, New York, and Texas.

Comment by John Howard Association Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:05 am
@Cassandra:

Your woefully ignorant comments never cease to amaze me. I hate to tell you this but your vision of hoards of unnecessary workers couldn’t be more off base. You are always going to find a few here and there but your continued assertions that workers are not necessary indicate that you are completely clueless.

Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:05 am
The Dept of Insurance isn’t paid out of GR funds so it’s increase has minimal if any impact on the General Corporate budget.

Comment by South of 80 Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:06 am
You’re correct Joe. Let me give another example. Our department can’t hire front line essential employees yet our state university just started construction on a $54 million performing arts center. Is that essential? Right now? Gut check on priorities please

Comment by Former Merit Comp Slave Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:13 am
Cassandra’s uninformed (and repetitive — for years now) is typical of folks outside government. The IT-as-panacea argument, though, is especially troublesome. There’s not enough IT staff in place at most state agencies to maintain current systems, develop new tools, create new websites — let alone plan for massive workflow overhauls or initiated new processes. IT staff are expensive — and the do-less-with-more argument doesn’t work in IT.

IT investment is a hungry machine — highly skilled, highly specialized workers maintaining highly specialized servers and writing increasingly complex code. Moreover, as servers increase at any given agency, complexity and training increases exponentially. You can’t pay IT staff less just because they work for the state — and then simultaneously threaten any semblance of a “benefit” they receive. Do this — as it’s being done now — and you force agencies to turn to consultants — that cost even more than staff (and work for only a week or two at a time).

Anyway, all this falls on deaf ears. Two days from now, we’ll hear the same “reduce mid-level managers” and “use computers instead of staff” stuff.

Comment by Frenchie Mendoza Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:26 am
- $54 million performing arts center -

That money doesn’t come from GRF, it’s not as if it would be available to the agencies.

You can argue the merits of one project vs. another, but try not to confuse the capital program with the budget.

Comment by Small Town Liberal Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:29 am
=== Create a different funding model for State government ===

Just what does that mean? How does one create a funding model? What does it look like?

Revenue might still be low, Nickypiii, but raising same is typically a function of increasing taxes, pure and simple. That ain’t gonna happen in this climate. So, build a different model for us - don’t just say it’s gotta happen.

Comment by dupage dan Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:32 am
“For what it is worth, Illinois has the fewest number of state employees per capita, out of all 50 states”

This is very true. However, Illinois is also the state with the largest number of units of local government out of the 50 states. At last count the number of local units of government was over 6000 (townships, counties, library districts, school districts, park districts, etc.). Hawaii, on the other hand, had a total of less than 20 units of local government. Many, but not all, of the functions of government can be done by either on the state level or on the local level. Illinois has decided to go with more being done by local units of government as evidenced by the thousands of units of local government. Because of this, fewer state workers may not be a problem.

Comment by Small Town Taxpayer Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:35 am
== but try not to confuse the capital program with the budget.==
Yeah, that’s Pat’s common refrain as he gallivants around the state passing out giant checks for pork projects. It is all state money and if they weren’t selling bonds for that kind of stuff maybe they could pay their actual bills instead of running up more.

Comment by Bill Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:35 am
Yeah Bill, and maybe if your pal Rod had spent some time managing the state we wouldn’t have as many old bills.

Comment by Small Town Liberal Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:55 am
DuPage Dan: How about increasing the sales tax base while lowering the amount of the States portion? The 21st century of service oriented commerce doesn’t get any sales tax …why? Increase the income tax rate enough to fund all of our State obligations each and every year. Increase the State personal exemption amount enough so the increase doesn’t effect low and middle income earners. WOW! That was tough to figure out. The money has already been spent and we don’t pay for it! Elected officials are sent to make the correct decisions in Springfield so…INCREASE REVENUE NOW and stop worrying about your next election!

Comment by Nickypiii Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:56 am
==Illinois is also the state with the largest number of units of local government out of the 50 states==

The key phrase is “number of units of local government” If all of those units of local government in Illinois such as townships, etc., suddenly disappeared, those services and expenses would be then be picked up at the county level - not the state level — and thus would not require additional state employees.

So comparing Illinois’ state employees per capita to other states is still a legitimate comparison for the most part.

Comment by Joe M Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:58 am
When will we drop the counterproductive “war on drugs”, and begin to treat drug use as the health problem it truly is? Fewer and smaller prisons, law enforcement focused on real criminals, and fewer people branded as felons for life. Legalizing marijuana use for adults would be a good start, but all drugs should be at least decriminalized as they are in Portugal. It would save billions even as more money would be available to actually get addicts off drugs.

Comment by wishbone Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 12:10 pm
== but try not to confuse the capital program with the budget.==

What’s unsaid is that new buildings require additional operating expense that is not covered by bonds.

Comment by Norseman Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 12:21 pm
==But in light of the long-term expense of hiring 900 plus state workers for this agency alone, I’d take a close look at “Administration.”

@Cassandra-using the link Joe M provided right before your comment, it looks like “Administration” represents just 7% of DHS headcount. “Administration” includes HR, Information Systems. 7% seems reasonable to me.

http://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx?item=65127

Comment by Robert the Bruce Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 12:26 pm
My biggest question with this is what are the positions that would be filled and/or created?
Would this add front line staff that is needed, or add more Administration? Does anyone have a breakdown by Department and Work Site that we can review and see what exactly they want to fill?
There is no question that most if not all of the Departments need more “Indians”, but not more “Chiefs”. Justify each and every one of them, and if you cant then no you dont get to fill it.

Comment by SO IL M Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 12:36 pm
Time to shut C M S down thats who’s killing this state. why do we have to buy a galllon of window wash from them at $2.69 when we can buy from walmart for $1.79 a gallon

Comment by quincy Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 12:57 pm
quincbecause that is one way to get dedicated funds out of some agencies not funded by general revenue.

Comment by wizard Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 1:38 pm
STL
Somehow things seemed a lot better then than they are now. Maybe the Lt Gov should have stepped up more to help govern.

Comment by Bill Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 1:40 pm
quincy & wizard

It’s also a way to get a bit more in federal program funding for allowable administrative overhead costs.

Comment by RNUG Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 1:52 pm
For years now the ranks of management positions in DOC, and I’m willing to bet other agencies as well, have been kept filled and even expanded while front line staff has dwindled…It would sure be nice to have some kind of honest, independent review of our state government to reassess which positions within the state are actually needed and then fill them by priority and need instead of politically.
Of course that will never happen in a politically corrupt state like Illinois.

Comment by Bulldog58 Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 4:38 pm
There are probably a lot of administrative jobs which don’t fall under “administration” too.

I understand why managers in public jobs are afraid of the idea that their jobs can be replaced by computer software. It’s not just blue collar jobs which are going the way of the dinosaur. You have to be a lot more skilled these days to get many manufacturing jobs, which nowrely heavily on technology, not brawn.

But it’s true. For a lot of middle class workers, the answer to the question “can a computer do your job” is, unfortunately, yes. And that includes a lot of government jobs.

Comment by cassandra Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 5:54 pm
cassandra @ 5:54 pm:

As someone with decades of computer experience and quite a few books on the topic, my response is ‘GIGO’. I’ve seen too many applications implemented where that axiom, “Garbage In, Garbage Out”, applied.

Comment by RNUG Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 6:32 pm
Bill, I do admire your consistency.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 6:34 pm