{"id":11731,"date":"2010-09-20T02:58:16","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T07:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=11731"},"modified":"2010-09-20T04:05:43","modified_gmt":"2010-09-20T09:05:43","slug":"state-agencies-offer-up-9800-jobs-to-close-budget-shortfall-including-tsd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/09\/20\/state-agencies-offer-up-9800-jobs-to-close-budget-shortfall-including-tsd\/","title":{"rendered":"State agencies offer up 9,800 jobs to close budget shortfall including TSD"},"content":{"rendered":"

State agencies offer up 9,800 jobs to close budget shortfall<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though many positions will be exempt, cuts could be deep because of
\nrecession.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Kate Alexander
\nAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF<\/p>\n

Saturday, September 18, 2010<\/p>\n

To the children at the Texas School for the Deaf, Mary Monckton is a sunny
\nand engaging speech pathologist determined to help them learn to
\ncommunicate.<\/p>\n

But to legislators, Monckton is an expense that Texas might not be able to
\nafford.<\/p>\n

Hers is one of 9,800 jobs that state agencies have offered up for
\nelimination as legislators prepare to trim billions of dollars from the
\n2012-13 state budget, according to an American-Statesman analysis of agency
\nbudget requests. Some of those positions are empty, and others will probably
\nbe preserved by legislators.<\/p>\n

Still, the budget data show that most of those jobs are not vacant, but are
\nfilled by living, breathing workers who could be laid off as the state
\ngrapples with a projected two-year budget shortfall approaching $21 billion.<\/p>\n

Mike Gross , vice president of the Texas State Employees Union , said he
\nexpects there will be much more pressure to lay off employees next year than
\nin 2003, the last time Texas faced a similar budget crunch. State leaders
\nhave again vowed to close the gap without raising taxes, but the magnitude
\nof the budget problem is greater this time, in part because of the ongoing
\nrecession.<\/p>\n

“We plan to defeat (layoff plans), but we’re going to have a lot more
\nheadwind,” Gross said. “Texas is not a poor state. We can afford to do
\nbetter by our people.”<\/p>\n

Although jobs and the economy have been a major focus of the election
\nseason, there has been little if any discussion about the potential loss of
\nthousands of state jobs next year.<\/p>\n

Agencies have a tendency to offer worst-case scenarios to open the budget
\nnegotiations, said Talmadge Heflin , director of the Center for Fiscal
\nPolicy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a think tank that promotes
\nlimited government.<\/p>\n

“If they show the legislators all these bad things will happen, maybe it
\nwill soften their hearts a little bit or loosen their pocketbooks,” said
\nHeflin, a former legislator who was chairman of the House Appropriations
\nCommittee in 2003.<\/p>\n

Despite the posturing, Heflin said, “there is a bit of truth to what they’re
\npresenting.”<\/p>\n

For Claire Bugen , superintendent of the School for the Deaf, it is
\nagonizing to consider losing Monckton or one of the school’s five other
\nspeech pathologists along with an audiologist, a librarian, a high school
\nteacher and many other employees.<\/p>\n

“Did you see the tears on my page?” Bugen said when asked about her school’s
\n$51.5 million budget request.<\/p>\n

Bugen, as with other state agency leaders, was required to propose cuts
\ntotaling 10 percent of the school’s general revenue budget, which came to
\n$3.6 million .<\/p>\n

She first nixed a summer school program that serves 250 deaf children from
\nmainstream schools, as well as building repair, some laundry services for
\nresidential students, computers, furniture and more. Still $1.2 million
\nshort of the reduction target, the only thing left to cut was people.<\/p>\n

“Every little position you lose in a school like ours has an impact,” said
\nBugen, who says the School for the Deaf should be exempt from the cuts, as
\nare traditional school districts.<\/p>\n

“We’re so small. How is our $3,637,402 going to help? It’s not going to help
\nthe State of Texas balance its budget, but it would do so much for us.”<\/p>\n

Therein lies the problem for Texas legislators.<\/p>\n

What’s really on table?<\/p>\n

The state’s $87 billion general revenue fund pays for a handful of behemoths
\n\u2014 public education, health and human services, criminal justice \u2014 and a
\nbunch of relatively small agencies.<\/p>\n

For now, state leaders have protected public school aid from the cuts,
\nthough people from across the political spectrum say it is unlikely that
\nschools will be left untouched.<\/p>\n

“If the Legislature is going to balance this budget primarily through budget
\ncuts, nothing can be off the table,” said Dale Craymer , president of the
\nTexas Taxpayers and Research Association and onetime budget director for
\nformer Gov. Ann Richards.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers also have less flexibility to reduce Medicaid-related and
\nChildren’s Health Insurance Program costs, as they did in 2003, because
\nfederal health care reform prohibits changing benefits or eligibility
\nrequirements.<\/p>\n

The result is a concentrated blow to the programs that are left.<\/p>\n

All told, the 10 percent cuts could reduce state spending by $3 billion if
\nfully implemented, according to the Legislative Budget Board.<\/p>\n

Another $1.2 billion could be saved if the 5 percent cuts enacted in the
\ncurrent budget are continued.<\/p>\n

That leaves a long way to go to close a $21 billion gap, even with an $8
\nbillion rainy day fund.<\/p>\n

In the end, certain agencies might be told to dig even deeper.<\/p>\n

Still, not all of the 9,800 jobs that agencies have placed on the chopping
\nblock are equally vulnerable.<\/p>\n

Moves to save jobs afoot<\/p>\n

Key legislators are already pushing to exempt from layoffs 7,300 prison
\nguards, parole officers and other corrections workers at the Texas
\nDepartment of Criminal Justice.<\/p>\n

Every job preserved means fewer dollars saved. Dreading a “soft-on-crime”
\nlabel, however, lawmakers often allow politics to trump budget reality.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, colleges and universities are expected to add to the final
\njob loss tally when the budget is completed next year. The schools were not
\nincluded in the American-Statesman analysis because they were not required
\nto report the full impact of the potential cuts in their budget proposals.<\/p>\n

But higher education shouldered a disproportionately large amount of the
\n$1.2 billion trim from the current budget, and that is not expected to
\nchange next year.<\/p>\n

The University of Texas, for instance, has said 600 jobs could be eliminated
\nif a full 10 percent cut is required. At Texas A&M University, the number of
\naffected jobs would be 400.<\/p>\n

In 2003, most of the 10,000 eliminated jobs were cleared through attrition
\nand a retirement incentive. About 1,400 workers were laid off at the
\nDepartment of Criminal Justice and the Texas Education Agency .<\/p>\n

But 2011 might necessitate more actual layoffs because the budget situation
\nis worse and the state has fewer budget-cutting options than in 2003,
\nCraymer said.<\/p>\n

Because of the recession, there are also fewer vacant positions to scuttle
\nwithout affecting a person, said Andy Homer , government relations director
\nfor the Texas Public Employees Association.<\/p>\n

“The turnover numbers have just gone down. People who have a job are
\nsticking with it,” Homer said.<\/p>\n

Layoffs account for about 70 percent of the 2,300 job cuts offered by
\nnon-public safety agencies, according to the budget requests.<\/p>\n

Almost all of the public safety job cuts, if they were to happen, would be
\nlayoffs.<\/p>\n

Effects of cuts outlined<\/p>\n

Agencies say Texans could pay a steep price for eliminating these jobs. For
\nexample:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Courts of Appeal in Austin, Houston, San Antonio and elsewhere say they
\nwould have no choice but to downsize by 46 employees, with some lopping off
\ntheir legal staff by 20 percent or more . The result of saving $6 million
\nthrough the cuts would be greater backlogs of civil and criminal cases and
\nfewer cleared cases, the courts wrote.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Texas Veterans Commission would lose 21 jobs , including three
\nemployees who help the families of wounded veterans find jobs. Thirteen of
\nthe eliminated positions \u2014 nine of which are now occupied \u2014 would be claims
\ncounselors who help veterans apply for medical and pension benefits with the
\nU.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.<\/p>\n

A veteran’s chances of maximizing his or her federal benefits go up
\nconsiderably when aided by the counselors, who can navigate the VA’s
\nlabyrinthine bureaucracy and speak its distinct language, said Victor
\nPolanco , a veterans counselor at the VA clinic on Montopolis Drive. “It can
\nbe cumbersome,” he said.<\/p>\n

Eliminating all 13 claims counselor positions would have the effect of
\nreducing federal benefits to Texas veterans and their families by $88
\nmillion over the two years, and the state would lose $3 million in sales tax
\nas a result, the agency estimates.<\/p>\n

Services could suffer<\/p>\n

At the School for the Deaf, Bugen is concerned that the staffing reductions
\ncould leave the state in a legally tenuous spot because each of the school’s
\n552 students is entitled to federally mandated services for students with
\ndisabilities.<\/p>\n

“There is indeed a chance that one of the unintended consequences of these
\nreductions could be an increase in litigation regarding the denial of or
\nlack of appropriate educational services resulting in larger costs to the
\nstate budget,” Bugen wrote in the agency’s budget request.<\/p>\n

Monckton, who has worked as a speech pathologist at the school for three
\nyears, said she loves her job but could find another if she were laid off.<\/p>\n

She is concerned, however, that the staff reductions could affect the
\nindividual instruction provided to the students, particularly the littlest
\nones who are at a critical period in terms of learning American Sign
\nLanguage and getting exposure to spoken English.<\/p>\n

The school has never been in a position where it has had to turn down a
\nstudent. But the budget crunch has forced the school to ponder changes that
\nwere once unthinkable, such as limiting the ages of the students it serves
\nor creating a waiting list.<\/p>\n

“It’s something I’m hoping we never have to face,” Bugen said.<\/p>\n

Proposed state job cuts*<\/p>\n

More than 9,800 state jobs could be eliminated next year as Texas prepares
\nfor a potential shortfall of $21 billion for the 2012-13 budget. Here is a
\nlook at agencies that have put the most jobs on the chopping block.<\/p>\n

Agency Jobs cut
\nDept. of Criminal Justice 7,353
\nYouth Commission 460
\nComptroller of Public Accounts 315
\nDept. of State Health Services 276
\nHealth and Human Services Commission 246
\nDepartment of Insurance 186
\nAgrilife Extension Service 140
\nDepartment of Public Safety 120
\nAgrilife Research 116
\nAlcoholic Beverage
\nCommission 94<\/p>\n

* Includes both layoffs and the elimination of vacant positions.<\/p>\n

Source: 2012-13 Legislative Appropriations Requests submitted to the
\nLegislative Budget Board<\/p>\n

kalexander@statesman.com; 445-3618<\/p>\n

Source:
\nhttp:\/\/www.statesman.com\/news\/texas-politics\/state-agencies-offer-up-9-800-jobs-to-924533.html?viewAsSinglePage=true<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State agencies offer up 9,800 jobs to close budget shortfall Though many positions will be exempt, cuts could be deep because of recession. By Kate Alexander AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Saturday, September 18, 2010 To the children at the Texas School for…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[1734,1164,6339,6340,6342,213,3777,6343,6344,3073,6337,6336,2711,3698,604,6345,6341,6338,80,519],"class_list":["post-11731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-childrens-health-insurance-program","tag-claire-bugen","tag-courts-of-appeal","tag-department-of-criminal-justice","tag-house-appropriations-committee","tag-howard-college","tag-legislature","tag-mary-monckton","tag-mike-gross","tag-recession","tag-speech-pathologist","tag-staff-reductions","tag-texas-am-university","tag-texas-education-agency","tag-texas-school-for-the-deaf","tag-texas-state-employees-union","tag-texas-taxpayers-and-research-association","tag-texas-veterans-commission","tag-tsd","tag-university-of-texas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-33d","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30652,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2015\/05\/01\/kick-off-of-moms-matter-support-for-moms-of-dhh-children\/","url_meta":{"origin":11731,"position":0},"title":"Kick Off of MOM’s MATTER support for moms of D\/HH children","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"May 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Join us for the Kick Off of MOM's MATTER support group for moms of Deaf\/hh children. 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