Bad Motions

I got in trouble for wearing a band aid on my forehead yesterday during floor debate. Perhaps it was recognized as political statement on behalf of fellow teachers rather than as a real sterile dressing designed to protect a wound.

Today we came to the attic of the old courthouse where the Joint Finance Committee meets at 7 am on budget setting mornings. We gather with coffee or orange juice around several big folding tables where the heat rises. Typically we share our “motions” or give each other a bit of fair warning as to where each of us proposes that a budget should be set. How many employees will we give an agency? How much for rent and utilities? Any replacement items, new computers, cars, servers? And what money are we cutting? Where will funds they do get come from? From the federal government, a dedicated fee, a grant or from the big $2.4 billion state tax bucket called the general fund?

This morning we had to make a decision we have been putting off while the world adjusted to what the more than one billion in stimulus funding will mean. We had to decide how much to cut state employee pay. There were seven motions or proposals. In the heat of the attic in this big old cement and stone building anything seemed possible. As we passed out the motion sheets in that room that used to be part of the county jail, the options seemed to contract.

By the time we got to our committee room in front of the cameras our choices were down to three. Three bad motions made on the table in that comparatively cold and empty room. All three motions proposed to cut state employee costs by 5%. The worst one of these passed. It cut every state employee’s pay by 3% and then mandated 2% more in employee cost be cut through furloughs, keeping positions vacant and if necessary through layoffs.

The House members were lock step for this motion and its 3% salary reduction and 5% net cut in personnel funding. Why in any rational way they would want that, I do not know. We could have given more room for agencies to use furloughs more or vacant positions. We could have used dedicated funds or stimulus funds to keep it at 4% or even 3% total personnel cuts. But leadership in the House has been twisting arms for weeks. I’m not sure what any state employee ever did to them or if it is just that those particular Republican leaders need to keep hating government, even when government is our tax dollars, people’s jobs, people’s lives.

So I feel awful. I tried to make a motion that was only so slightly better than the motion that we did pass. It was a band-aid for a gaping wound.  Our Democratic votes are band-aids on gaping wounds in a state government run by people too often angry at living in a nation increasingly blue and progressive. We serve here at the mercy of a political party increasingly hateful toward cities, astoundingly favorable to big industry tax breaks and deregulation at the expense of the families, farms and small businesses upon which our economy and unique existence as a state depends.

Some days, while I love my colleagues as individuals, the politics get so sad and ugly that I feel like a twig in a big red river flowing ever more quickly toward the edge of the earth.

Comments

[Sandy Hacking]

Funny you should make some of those comments in your blog. I AM a state employee, and have been for 25 years. Looking back over the last 25 years, I'm not exactly sure why I have stayed. In 1984, I was hired for $5.39 per hour after working for Mtn Bell for 10 years making over $30,000.00 a year and being laid off due to the result of the anti trust suit. Little did I know that as a state employee I have so little respect from the public or the legislature. I quickly moved into a "professional" position and was raised to $7.22 per hour with pay period ending 07/14/1984. I didn't receive another raise until PPE 06/28/1986 to 7.96 ph. From PPE 06/28/86 through 10/03/1987 there finally came a raise up to 8.78 ph. The next raise was 06/24/1989 to 10.16 ph. Then w/PPE 07/08/89 came another change to 10.41 ph. Then for the next few years the increases came a little more regular. Apparently there were no floods in northern Idaho that state employees needed to pay for or state budgets we needed to cover. Then came 06/18/1994. Up to this time, as state employees met milestones in their state service, they received a 5% increase for 5 years, 10 years, etc. Well, with all the lay offs that affected me in those early years, my net credited service was adjusted to 06/18/1994. The legislature that year took away the 5% increases for those milestones and I was the first state employee affected by this.
From 06/18/1994 through 06/29/1996 there were small increases, but then there were no increases from 06/29/1996 until 06/27/1998. Then I moved agencies on 12/25/1999. Although it was a lateral transfer, this agency reduced my wages to 10.97 from 15.34 ph. Finally on 06/23/01 I was raised to 14.49 ph. Then there no more increases until 06/19/2004. Then the next increase came 02/11/2006. As you can see, out of 25 years, there have been atleast 10 years that I have received -0- increases. Also keep in mind my job performances have been meets or exceeds to exemplary. The governor's report and the Idaho Statutes state that state employees are significantly behind the market. The reduction in wages will only make this fact worse. With the economic situation the way it is, most of us have spouses and adult children that have been laid off or their hours reduced. In my family, my husband has been laid off since 10/01/2008. He was not eligible for UIB until 01/04/2009 due to self employment for the prior 18 years. My son has only worked a couple hours a week since before Christmas. He and his family are now living back in my house. I am the only person in my household working full time. I am the one buying the groceries, paying the utilities, and making a house payment. I am helping my son make his car payment as well. There just isn't enough money to go around to begin with and now, after all this, more is taken away. Where is it written that the state employees are responsible for making up the shortfall all the time? Please explain this situation to your colleagues.

[Nicole LeFavour]

Hoping this issue is still up for debate. Otter and Cameron are making eyes like we might come back fix this cruel mess!