When is a hiring freeze not a hiring freeze?

   So very often, reality is not as things appear in Albany.

   A little over three months ago, Gov. David Paterson took the bold step of ordering a hiring freeze for state agencies. Not the usual wink-wink kind of freeze, but a "hard" one that would require agencies to go through the process of getting approval from his budget office for any hiring.

   But payroll records show 31,684 people have been hired since the freeze was announced July 30. It begs the question: how many people would have been hired without a hiring freeze?

   There are all sorts of explanations. Most of them are in the state's higher education systems, for posts like full-time and adjunct professors and student assistants, and the state university system is not part of the freeze. But few agencies were blocked from adding staff and there are a slew of job titles that, while important, might not rise to the level of "essential" that the freeze was intended to exclude.

   Critics say it's another example of a government unable to truly tackle the costs right under its nose. But state officials say economic downturn or not, the business of the government still goes on. Prisoners have to be guarded, patients need to be cared for in public health settings and public safety cannot be undermined.

   So far, the state workforce has largely escaped the wrath of budget cutters. But today, Paterson will reveal what his budget advisers believe is the condition of the state budget at its midway point in the 2008 fiscal year. It will likely show a deficit of at least $1.5 billion this year, and many billions more for next year. Some have floated numbers as high as $9 billion or more for 2009.

   The fiscal situation is going to set off warfare between the various entities that rely on the state for money -- whether it's the state workforce or public schools or local governments or the health care industry.

   And what Paterson, like any governor, hopes to avoid are state worker layoffs. Besides disrupting families and communities with heavy public sector employment, layoffs also would set the otherwise liberal Democrat on a collision course with state worker unions. But at the very least, the fiscal problems may force him to become more strict in his interpretation of a "hard" hiring freeze.

  --Tom Precious

Comments

[HapKlein]

Hiring freezes and quota’s give the appearance of relief but the reality is they wind up costing the taxpayers more.
To cut costs honestly government has to cease programs and lay off personnel. Recently we saw the futility of that by a unit trying to shut down the childrens treatment center at Great Valley to save 1.5 million a year. Senator Young and her legislative buddies managed to overcome the attempt at economy. That is a good example of what can occur in a hiring freeze too. If the staff at a state facility come up short handed then others will be paid overtime to fill the gap costing the taxpayers more money.
In the case of public safety positions like firemen, safety inspectors, guards and police, the public safety and security can suffer endangering the rest of us.
No the state has to carefully define what we can afford and just cut to that level. Naturally the entire legislature will be on the other end of that load pushing back. Maybe their budget culd be cut in half (fat chance) and then some real savings could begin.
But we had better begin somewhere things are going to be thin for a long time.

[Laxgoalie1313]

I think its important to take this all in context. At SUNY, graduate assistants and adjuncts are essentially unemployed for the summer and rehired in mid-August (as needed). In addition, how many jobs have remained unfilled? How many of the people hired are still employed (i.e. the State Fair employees have been let go, I'd hope, and the civil service exam monitors work what, once a month, if that?)

[Barton Keyes]

We will know that the government in Albany actually means business when the Executive Dept and the Legislature reduce its personnel at the same level they require other agencies to reduce hires.

[James]

What positions were filed in Western New York? Does anyone know? I heard there were some at the Department of Motor Vehicles and Health Department.

[HapKlein]

I was just checking the actual figures at : http://www.empirecenter.org/files/PW3.pdf.
There are all sorts of figures available that can show just about anything anyone would want to prove. Floating numbers include the student bodies that are hired for various purposes and agriculture part timers who are hired annually for the state fair.
I think the ires are a stalking horse and the true picture is the change up or down on the actual cost of government adjusted for inflation.
I would really like to see how much the executive and legislative sides reduce their respective budgets.

[Hank]

I suppose we have to keep looking at the evidence that government has failed in the larger sense, at all levels.
Hiring freezes are like the Federal Reserve trying to control credit terms by lowering the Fed Funds rate.
They are both the wrong instruments and do not work, basically. The answer isn't to eliminate government nor to freeze budgets and/or hiring. It is to reform government essentially. It will be done only when economics has taken the localities, states, and nation to the very bottom.
We are nowhere near that, so nowhere near the majority needed to reform. Reform must begin at the very top. The County Executive, the Mayor, The Governor, and the President. That means the institutions, from taxing and regulation, to banking and education, health, and welfare. Hiring freezes are, in reality, putting lipstick on a pig. The economic outlook is so dire even Arthur Laffer wrote "The End of Prosperity." Even supply side economcs will not work.
Muriel Siebert was just on CNBC and said there is One QUADRILLION Dollars in Derivatives that no one knows anything about. That is why the fear and lack of confidence exist, and you can lose your home, job, and health, and still be taxed more and more. Money and its definition and use must be regulated and changed. One day it will happen, by necessity. And it is known how. The leaders prefer to drag us toward oblivion. And that will happen if reform is not undertaken.

[pgr88]

And on the same page, the News reports that NY State is headed towards a $12.5 billion deficit.

Wall St. propped up New York State, even though Upstate has been decimated by 50+ years of left-wing policies. Now the last prop to our socialist State has been removed. In the words of Jeremiah Wright - "the Chickens are coming HOME to ROOOOST!"

[Hank]

You still haven't learned what you will have to learn. This is about exploitation and greed, not socialism. And there's not two percent difference between the two major parties when it comes to exploitation and greed. But, instead of a junta, the Democrats are more likely to listen to the electorate, eventually. The Republicans are dying.

[Carol]

Why don't you ask Dave Swartz, our turncoat former county clerk, why he needs more political people in his executive office in ALbany than his predecessor, Nancy Naples, had? Did he really need another deputy commissioner? Or was this "job" created for one of Spitzer's cronies who needed a place to hide after the luv Gov resigned in disgrace? Your article proves that hiring freezes are cheap political tricks and don't apply to everyone - you just didn't dig deep enough.

[Hank]

While the "freeze/non-freeze" is on, real people prospecting for real jobs on Wall Street are told "It's Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai, or Good-Bye." Meanwhile, a Real Estate Origination firm owner just bid a record $400,000 just for the rights to the best seats for the New York Jets. Tax policies must be made more progressive.

[Joseph Malvana]

Please tell us who got jobs in WNY and how much they are paid and if the jobs include lifetime benefits.

[tina]

New York has become a national beggar, and it is only going to get worse.

Keep the devastation going New York, be sure you all keep those blinders on again this election season and vote for your favorite incumbent, regardless of the mess they have made in the state and local legislatures.

Democrats will blindly vote for Democrats and Republicans for Republicans.

Heaven forbid anyone in New York should actually want to hold incumbents accountable for the State's mess.

After the election you can come back to these blogs and rant about how smart and wonderful your favorite party is and how dumb the other guy is.

People get the government they deserve.

The "Empire State", what a joke !!