Let's debate state job cuts before election

Election articles ... from the 11/01/2002 Compass: • On the record with Wisconsin's candidates for governor • Right to Life continues fight • Editorial: Time to vote from the 10/25/2002 Compass: • Part seven -- Environment and agriculture from the 10/18/2002 Compass: • Part six -- Criminal Justice and Corrections • Eye on the Capitol: Faithful Catholic citizens called to get involved in elections from the 10/11/2002 Compass: • Part five -- Budget Shortfalls and Taxation from the 10/04/2002 Compass: • Part four -- Health Care from the 9/27/2002 Compass: • Part three -- Help for Families from the 9/20/2002 Compass: • Part two -- Human Life and Dignity from the 9/13/2002 Compass: • Part one -- Intro. and overview • Helping faithful Catholics decide

A predictable feature of campaigns for state office is that candidates promise to deliver a more efficient government by reducing the number of people who work for it. This year is no exception. Some have suggested the state workforce should be reduced by 10,000 positions over the next 10 years.

The suggestion to shrink the state's work force over the next 10 years may sound good between now and Nov. 5. But it will do little to close the budget gap that will exist in February, the deadline by which the Governor must submit Wisconsin's state budget for 2003-05. For only positions eliminated in the next two years will generate any savings that can be applied to the state's budget deficit, now estimated to be well over $1 billion a year.

Next we must consider that state employees are paid from different pots of money such as motor fuel taxes, other fees or federal dollars. Of Wisconsin's total workforce of nearly 67,000, only about 36,500 are paid for with general-purpose revenues (GPR) raised from taxes like the income tax and sales tax. Since it is the general fund that is running the deficit, only cuts in GPR positions will help close the deficit.

Which of these 36,500 people will we do without to balance the budget?

Most candidates want to be tough on crime. Thus it is unlikely any Governor will reduce the staff of the Department of Correction, which employs about 9,000, to accommodate staffing needs of our exploding prison system.

Nor should we expect to see cuts among the 375 prosecutors in the offices of Wisconsin's 72 district attorneys who are now state employees nor of the 523 public defenders mandated by law to represent indigent criminal defendants.

This leaves about 26,600 workers. Or does it?

The University of Wisconsin employs just over 19,000 people. While the UW is a tempting target, it is also vital to any strategy to develop Wisconsin's work force at a time of a state labor shortage. The legislature only recently balked at cutting the UW budget by $100 million, settling for cuts half that much. Will the Governor elected in November target UW positions?

If we add the UW's 19,000 workers to the "do not cut" list we are left with a state work force of 7,600. Of these over 2,000 are employed by the Department of Health and Family Services, the agency that provides services to the elderly, persons with disabilities and families with special needs. Earlier this year there was a bi-partisan consensus not to cut programs targeted at such vulnerable populations.

By now you have noticed there are not enough employees remaining to supply a reduction of 10,000 in the state workforces. Even if the UW staff took a 10% cut of nearly 2,000 staff, it would be necessary to eliminate all but the remaining GPR-funded jobs to get to the magic 10,000 total.

Does this mean every state job is too essential to be eliminated? No. But these employees deliver programs and services that our people say they want. It seems reasonable that any plan to eliminate state employees be accompanied by a discussion as to what programs we will do without in order to make the cuts.

This discussion should take place before the election, not after.

(Huebscher is executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, the civil arm of the state's five diocesan bishops. Its website is www.wisconsincatholic.com.)