Banking on Spitzer
State Unions Call Job Cuts Unlikely

By REUVEN BLAU

Despite a looming multi-billion dollar state budget deficit, the two largest state-employee unions last week said they were confident that Governor Spitzer would remain committed to doing more work in-house and maintain staffing levels.

KEN BRYNIEN: 'We're the money-savers.'

Speaking several days before Governor Spitzer's State of the State address on Jan. 9, officials from the Civil Service Employees Association and the Public Employees Federation acknowledged that they had heard speculation about the state looking to implement a hiring freeze or for 10-percent personnel cuts in specific agencies.

'Expect More Hiring'

"We've heard some rumors that the state was trying to make government more efficient," PEF President Ken Brynien said during a Jan. 3 phone interview. "What I am looking for is the Governor to continue to work on his promise to hire more state employees instead of relying on private consultants."

The unions pointed out that Mr. Spitzer's first budget actually increased the state workforce by nearly 2,500 employees, including hundreds of Nurses and Department of Transportation employees.

GOVERNOR SPITZER: Tough choices ahead.

"He said the state workforce had already been cut to the bone and couldn't be cut anymore," Mr. Brynien said, referring to the Governor's remarks after taking office. "He hasn't said or done anything to indicate a change."

But that was before a projected $4-billion deficit in the upcoming year, which appears to be ballooning as time progresses due to the continued softening real-estate market, the subprime mortgage crisis, and rising energy costs.

Eye on Corporate Breaks

"There are obviously some real challenges facing the state, but we think there should be some long-term strategies to address that," said CSEA's chief spokesman Stephen Madarasz.

He suggested that state officials work to close corporate tax loopholes as a way to generate more funds, a proposal State Senate Speaker Joseph Bruno panned last week.

"This is not backdoor taxes," Mr. Madarasz contended. "The whole idea of it being a loophole is that someone is taking advantage of the system."

Public support for Governor Spitzer has waned over the past year, due in part to his failed license plan for undocumented immigrants and the Troopergate scandal. The unions admitted that the Governor has been distracted, but stressed that they have continued to work well with his administration on several fronts.

'Tried to Satisfy Unions'

"I think that the Governor has tried hard to keep the unions happy; that is one of his core constituencies," said George Arzt, a veteran political consultant. "However, if the budget gets too far out of line, they are going to need some personnel actions - it could be attritions, or it could be anything."

Mr. Brynien said the Governor has had "a lot of challenges" during his first year in office, but stressed that PEF has been "satisfied" so far.

"We look forward to even a better year," the union president said. "I understand it's a gradual thing to change from an attitude of 'let's cut as much as we can' to start rehiring to get the work done."

With no end in sight to the legislative gridlock in Albany, PEF has spent the past several months working with the Governor's Office to draft an executive order that would require state agencies to provide a cost/benefit analysis of private contractors retained by departments. It took that route out of concern that a renewed legislative push on that front could get stalled by the bickering between the Governor and the leaders of the State Senate and Assembly.

Language Barrier

Governor Spitzer supports PEF's latest effort, but his office has yet to finalize the language of the directive, which would only apply to his administration, Mr. Brynien said. "Although we've been in discussions for several months, because of other distractions we haven't been able to come to any conclusion yet," he added.

PEF has long maintained that the state can save millions of dollars by using state workers as opposed to relying on expensive and unreliable private contractors. The union plans to release a detailed report later this month listing specific areas where savings can be accomplished by voiding those contracts, PEF spokeswoman Darcy Wells said.

"We are going to be coming out with some pretty alarming statistics," Ms. Wells asserted. "We are going to show some of the agencies where the amount of money being spent on private contractors is pretty outrageous."

PEF is hoping that report and other suggestions will help end talk of a hiring freeze or other personnel cuts, which were first suggested in November by Senate Minority Leader Malcolm A. Smith.

"I think we would look very negatively even if they were using attrition," Mr. Madarasz said. "Because they made a positive commitment last year going forward to try to strengthen state agencies - to just go right back at it to start making cuts would demonstrate an inconsistency, which is the kind of shortsighted approach for the last 20 years that's caused a whole range of issues."