March 29, 2012 07:49 PM UTC

When "Killing Jobs" Is The Plan

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Members of the Joint Budget Committee reached a deal today that has Democrats and Republicans claiming victory (per usual), with a 1% reduction that now excludes many vital departments from cuts like corrections. From Colorado WINS’ press release a short while ago:

We are thanking the entire Joint Budget Committee for coming to a reasonable solution to this deadlock. Our understanding from the Governor’s office is that this agreement will avoid any job loss. We are especially relieved that the 24/7 and public safety divisions will be held harmless. These are the divisions that have been hardest hit by the revenue crisis and where staffing is truly a life or death issue.

We are also glad that the committee has voted to absorb the health care premium increases that would have hit state employees next year. The bottom line is that this year’s budget will reflect the economic recovery and ensure that state employees and the services they provide will be a part of it.

After four years of pay cuts, hiring freezes, furloughs, and understaffing, we are going in the right direction. [Pols emphasis]

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The Pueblo Chieftain’s Patrick Malone follows up from the Joint Budget Committee:

A partisan divide on the Joint Budget Committee over whether to follow through with a proposed 2 percent funding cut across state departments in light of newfound revenues has forced a stalemate in the state budgeting process.

Democrats and the governor’s budget office say the state has sufficient funds to avoid the cut, which they contend could cost hundreds of state workers their jobs. Republicans argue that attrition will account for the reduction and characterize restoration of the support as growing government…

On Wednesday, JBC member Rep. John Becker, R-Fort Morgan, proposed the compromise of restoring half of the proposed cut. That motion died on a 3-3 party-line vote with Democrats in opposition.

“We tried in good faith to meet Democrats in the middle so we could come up with a compromise, but Democrats wouldn’t budge,” said JBC member Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs.

As we discussed yesterday, the 2% cut to state departments would result in the loss–either by unfilled vacancy or layoffs–of between 400 and 500 full-time employee positions throughout state government. These are cuts coming on top of years of such reductions, and most agencies report their staffing levels are barely adequate to cover current needs at best. With revenues recovering enough to allow consideration of resuming homestead property tax breaks for senior citizens and, in theory, eliminating this 2% cut, the ideological brick wall being encountered here from Joint Budget Committee Republicans is particularly hard to explain.

After all, if no layoffs are necessary, why the insistence on some layoffs?

Oh, that’s right, even if things are getting better, we’ve got to “not grow government!” This is where you realize that motives other than rational motives are at work here. This is where you realize that certain players are playing ideological games with the livelihoods of real people.

One small correction we would offer to Patrick Malone of the Chieftain is the assumption that the question of restoring the homestead property tax exemption at all has been “largely settled.” Especially if Republicans continue to display this kind of ideological obstinance in favor of unnecessary and ill-advised state employee layoffs, and our understanding as of this writing that Gov. John Hickenlooper remains opposed to funding tax breaks over other priorities, we’d say celebration of Frank McNulty’s election-year $100 million giveaway is very much premature.

It would be nice to at least get a reprieve for, you know, 500 or so jobs out of the deal.