Gov. Chris Gregoire signed a budget-cutting bill into law Tuesday that erases another 392 state worker positions from the books over the next 18 months.
Most staff cuts are falling at the Department of Corrections, which is converting a medium security unit at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla to minimum security. That move eliminates 128 full-time positions that are not needed because lower-risk inmates require less supervision.
But a closer look shows most of the other full-time-equivalent positions being eliminated at Corrections are “ghost” cuts. In all, DOC is eliminating about 400 positions – with about 300 of them unfilled jobs left vacant despite the layoffs of 1,500 people over the past three years.
“They’re not really positions … These are FTEs – it’s really a funding mechanism,” Alan Haskins, budget director for the roughly 8,000-employee DOC agency, said last week.
The cut in FTE allocations is part of the Legislature’s effort to keep closer tabs on how agencies manage staffing, “so you’re not letting them use it as a slush fund,’’ House Ways and Means Committee chairman Ross Hunter, D-Medina, said.
EMPLOYMENT DOWN 10 PERCENT SINCE ’08
The job cuts continue a three-year trend since employment peaked in the state’s general government agencies in late 2008.
The Office of Financial Management reports that the head count of people on the payrolls of general-government agencies and the executive and legislative branches fell by nearly 10 percent over that period – to 60,667 as of Nov. 14, down from 67,100 in November 2008.
The FTE level for state government agencies also fell, to 58,560, OFM spokesman Ralph Thomas said.
Gregoire had wanted lawmakers to close much more of the $2 billion budget gap than they did in the 17-day special session that ended last week. But House Bill 2058 did close $480 million of it – making less than half of the reduction with real cuts in spending – and Gregoire signed it without criticism.
She vetoed one provision calling for upkeep at the closed Maple Lane School for juvenile offenders, saying there was no money to pay for it. But she told lawmakers she would ensure security and “minimum operating systems” at the Grand Mound facility until April 1, “so the Legislature has the opportunity to discuss future uses for the facility.”
Maple Lane is one site mentioned by lawmakers who have floated the idea of moving the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island to the mainland to save money. But Gregoire said local opposition in Lewis County or anywhere else would make moving the lockup for sex offenders “virtually impossible.”
Most of the $480 million comes from formally booking revenues not previously accounted for – including $82 million in unspent money from the previous biennium; $50.6 million from quicker conversions of unclaimed property by the Department of Revenue; $38.4 million from additional federal welfare aid allocated to the state; and $22.6 million came from a three-year delay in the law changing when people with mental-health disorders are detained or committed involuntarily.
Gregoire said she has asked legislative budget writers for a timetable showing how they can close the remaining $1.5 billion budget gap in a 60-day regular session that begins Jan. 9. She wants as much as $835 million in new revenues, including a sales tax increase.
Corrections workers are worried that more cuts will come in the next session – and a big worry is that lawmakers might vote to let offenders out of prison 150 days early.
Longtime Corrections officer John Christy says he can safely handle the greater responsibility at the Washington State Penitentiary. But he is less sure about newer, younger employees thrust into overseeing inmates who are less low-risk than a minimum security clearance might suggest.
Christy also said workers getting recent layoff notices have been angry, some pounding the counter at the human resources office. As part of security rounds, he’s been checking in on human resources staff, and he said his supervisor has had people in his office crying.
SOME WORKERS LIKELY TO MOVE
Teamsters Local 117 represents the unionized staff that work in prisons, and secretary-treasurer Tracey Thompson said the number of people at the Washington State Penitentiary who end up without jobs might be limited to 47.
That is because workers getting notice can move into jobs that have been kept vacant and on the books at other penitentiary units or can bump workers in other prisons with less seniority. Some are moving into vacancies that can be filled at Walla Walla and others to Coyote Ridge, 75 miles away in Connell.
Some workers have moved several times as their jobs have been eliminated, and some have moved as far away as Clallam Bay at the remote end of the Olympic Peninsula.
“There’s a lot of insecurity, as you can imagine,” Thompson said. “For a lot of people, moving to Clallam Bay, that is not an option if you have family and kids in school.’’
The result is that many workers in Walla Walla are opting “to take the layoffs over bumping,” Thompson said.
The budget bill also calls for savings by delaying the refilling of vacancies for 25 to 50 additional positions that are expected to open up because of retirements.
Brad Shannon: 360-753-1688
bshannon@theolympian.com
www.theolympian.com/politicsblog
Staff writer Jordan Schrader contributed to this report.
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