June 06, 2008

Shrinking the workforce (Round I)

With marching orders from Governor David Paterson to cut spending, all but one of the first 23 agencies submitting plans will reduce their workforce by attrition.

Paterson instructed every state agency to develop strategies to cut its spending by 3.35 percent in the current year to help reduce a projected $5 billion budget gap in fiscal 2009-10. The plans are available here.

At least 599 jobs would be eliminated by attrition under these plans. That number includes only those agencies that offered specific target numbers in their plan summaries. Some mentioned percentages or were notably vague. None of the agencies called for layoffs or early retirement incentives.

The Division of Budget will complete its review of other agency plans no later than June 30. Those agencies include a number with large payrolls, such as Correctional Services, Education, Environmental Conservation, General Services, Lottery, Motor Vehicles, Parks, Parole and Workers Compensation. So the total state workforce is likely to shrink well beyond the 599 jobs.

Of the agencies submitting plans, some offer specific head count reductions, such as the Division of Budget (20 employees). Others are more vague, such as the Executive Chamber, which has undergone considerable employee turnover since Paterson became governor March 17.

Only one agency, the Office of Technology, plans to increase its workforce in the coming year. With an additional 114 employees, the agency promises it "can drive down statewide technology costs."

The Department of Taxation and Finance says it can get by with 195 fewer full-time and seasonal employees without affecting its revenue-raising capabilities.

Below are summaries of the 23 agency plans, focusing on the impact of the budget cuts on the state workforce. For more information, check each agency's report on the budget website.

Office for the Aging: "...a reduction of eight positions that will be managed through attrition. Aging's year-end position fill level is estimated to be 133 FTEs."

Office of Alcoholism & Substance Abuse Services: "...enhanced controls on overtime, as well as workforce reductions via attrition. The workforce target has been reduced by 11 positions."

Division of the Budget: "...personal service savings of $1.5 million through a reduction of 20 full-time staff, which will be managed through attrition and ongoing personnel management. The Division will also continue to seek additional opportunities to utilize existing technology to improve the efficiency of the Division's operations and mitigate the impact of the staffing reduction."

CUNY: "...re-examining and scaling back hiring plans for the 2008-09 academic fiscal year by 10 to 20 percent...."

NYS Developmental Disabilities Planning Council: "...a federally-funded agency....[plan] restrictions on hiring."

Executive Chamber: "... approximately 80% of the Chamber's budget supports personal service spending, the majority of the Chamber's savings will be achieved in this area. While proceeding through the first year of the new Administration, the Chamber will evaluate its staffing levels and organizational structure with the goal of reducing personal service spending through attrition and the selective filling of vacancies."

Financial Control Board for New York City: "Several high level staff retirements will be replaced internally and lower level positions will remain vacant. "

Department of Health: "DOH's year-end position fill level is estimated to be 5,937, a reduction of 103 full-time employees from its initial target of 6,040. ...The agency will also control the use of temporary personal service contracts/overtime and limit travel and training to the minimum level...."

Higher Education Services Corporation:"...limiting the refilling of vacated positions to items critical to the agency's ability to serve its customers or that generate revenues."

Division of Housing and Community Renewal: "...delaying the refilling of vacant positions and reflects a reduction of ten positions."

Department of Insurance: "...managing the workforce through attrition...and [postponing] planned move of two bureaus from the 25 Beaver Street location to other leased space in lower Manhattan."

Department of Labor: "...reducing its workforce target by 13 positions."

Office of the Medicaid Inspector General:"OMIG estimates that it will have a year-end workforce fill level of 682 full-time employees, a reduction of 71 from its initial target of 753 full-time employees. OMIG plans to fill up to the 753 target in 2009-10. These are auditor and investigator positions needed to achieve budgeted audit savings targets."

Office of Mental Health: "...enhanced controls for "standby on-call" and overtime, as well as workforce reductions via attrition. In total, the workforce target has been reduced by 100 positions."

Office of Mental Retardation & Developmental Disabilities: "...holding 53 positions vacant to achieve savings without impacting health and safety. First priority will be given to the hiring of direct support and critical clinical positions. The agency is also taking significant steps to reduce overtime, including a full review of overtime practices."

Commission on Quality of Care & Advocate for Persons with Disabilities: "...cutting their workforce target by 3 positions, delaying filling two additional positions...."

Office of Real Property: "By only filling positions that are essential to agency operations, ORPS will keep its FTE level below the current target of 384 by at least 10-12 FTEs."

Department of State: "The agency is currently under its workforce target and will manage workforce through attrition."

SUNY: "...soft and hard hiring freezes...."

SUNY Construction Fund: "...re-evaluating plans to hire additional staff associated with the implementation of SUNY's new $6.4 billion, five-year capital plan."

Department of Taxation & Finance: "...eliminating 25 full-time positions through attrition, delaying hiring of 100 staff, eliminating 70 temporary positions, and delaying general department-wide hiring....These actions are expected to have no impact on the anticipated collection of revenue."

Office for Technology: The agency's plans to increase it's "all funds" workforce from 635 to 749 during the fiscal year. It will reduce nonpersonal services. It says its activities will help other state agencies become more productive and reduce their costs. "Specifically, improvements in the efficiency of mainframe, data storage and other technology services will reduce the cost of agency mission-critical applications, such as the Child Abuse Hotline, Statewide Fingerprinting and NYSPIN."

Office of the Welfare Inspector General: "...reducing the budgeted salaries for two vacant positions. Technology will also be utilized to increase the agency's ability to conduct investigations more efficiently."

Posted by Lise Bang-Jensen

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