We have all known the government was in serious financial difficulties for many years, but no one was willing to bring it to a head. Finally, Gov. Charles W. Turnbull has taken the bull by the horns and wrestled it to the ground.
The question left begging is whether we are willing to get serious and begin implementing solutions.
One solution is to trim our government workforce. Unfortunately, some employees have lost their will to work, some were moved into positions in which they cannot function, and others given positions for which there is no pressing work to be done.
Far too often, such an employee constructs a shell and "hunkers down," waiting for retirement. Not only does the employee get paid on a regular basis, but they also accrue retirement at the rate of 2.5 percent of their highest base pay (figured on a three-year average).
The unions have fed into this problem by replacing the merit system with a longevity system. It is not possible, by general policy, to reward an unusually productive employee with a wage increase in their present job title. The only way any union member receives a wage increase is when ALL members receive the same increase.
One can recognize an individual's hard work with a job change into a higher paying position. Of course you lose a very productive employee and run the risk of putting that employee into a position where they are no longer highly productive.
Too often government loses several ways"
— We lose a most effective employee from a position where they were doing good work.
— We create an unnecessary position or place the employee into a position where they are less than effective.
— The employee "hunkers down," creating a shell of activity and waits for retirement.
— Having spent most of their career in a relatively low-paying position and then achieving a high retirement base, they retire taking all of their retirement money out of the Retirement System in one to two years, forcing the GERS to withdraw working capital.
What is the cost to government – us? Many of these employees are paid around $40,000 with some 24 percent fringe benefits, or a total cost to government/us of about $50,000 per year. If these people "hunker down" for an average of six years, they will probably qualify for at least one union raise and move to a final cost of $62,500 per year per employee. They take up office space, require administrative services and can disrupt/confuse service to the public.
"Exempt" positions were created some 12 years ago in an attempt to reorganize government. We chose Washington, D.C., (another story altogether) to reorganize our government and became the butt of a drug fiasco. Instead of becoming more efficient, we replaced some 30 non-classified positions with hundreds of positions created for many different reasons.
We can begin our housecleaning by returning to the classified merit system, transferring productive "exempt" employees to "classified" positions and terminating those employees who are not productive and do not hold meaningful positions.
Government can no longer be the employer of first and last resort. Government must be recognized as an institution to provide the infrastructure necessary for our community functioning at the level we are willing to fund (pay taxes for).
We can no longer hire people because they are born here, related to good old xxxx, or simply need a job and cannot/will not find one on their own.
Finally, we must be able to reward highly productive employees in their productive positions, and withhold wage increases from employees documented as failing to meet the standards for the position in which they are hired.
In other words, we need to make government work.
