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November 14, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS — Anyone surprised that the state of Indiana last week laid off 33 of its 30,000 or so employees hasn’t been paying much attention.
State tax revenues are in the tank.
Sales and income taxes aren’t hitting projections that had been downgraded twice to reflect the sour economy. Tax receipts so far in this fiscal year are 12 percent below last year, which was a weak year as well.
Gov. Mitch Daniels has been ordering cuts on top of cuts throughout state government. In fact, agencies have now been told they are to spend 20 percent less in this fiscal year than lawmakers gave them in 2008.
Already, salaries have been frozen, travel has been curtailed, and a strategic hiring freeze imposed — although the latter can be lifted for key positions. Daniels has said that education cuts are possible — if revenues don’t improve.
And earlier this month, he said state government job cuts are possible. Daniels said he’d leave those decisions largely to state agencies, with review by budget officials and his office.
Then word leaked out Friday that the Department of Administration was cutting 33 jobs.
Mark W. Everson, the DOA commissioner, told The Indianapolis Star that the layoffs were “necessary belt-tightening in the difficult economic circumstances facing the state.”
The move will save the agency $900,000 in this fiscal year and about $1.6 million a year thereafter.
That may not seem like much compared with the state’s $13 billion annual budget. But combined with other cuts, it can make a big difference, especially when agencies are trying to maintain state services.
Still, there will be plenty of critics of the move. I’ve already talked to folks who believe that the state should look everywhere else — even education funding — before laying off employees.
The last thing the state needs, one Statehouse observer told me, is more unemployed Hoosiers.
Questions have been raised as well about money the Indiana Gaming Commission intends to spend on a trip to Las Vegas for the Global Gaming Exposition — although that agency’s funds come from the casinos they regulate, not taxpayers.
There will be more questions. Now that state layoffs have occurred, morale among state employees will likely be shaken. Folks will start to worry what could happen in the agency where they work. And many will scrutinize every bit of spending done in every department.
No one will be able to travel, buy new supplies or make another hire without another employee wondering if it’s appropriate.
These are the same types of issues faced by private sector businesses and employees across Indiana.
Unfortunately, state layoffs may not be over.
While the governor’s press secretary, Jane Jankowski, said no more layoffs were happening immediately, there have been no promises about the future. And if tax revenues don’t improve, they may be unavoidable.
Lesley Stedman Weidenbener’s column appears on Sundays. Reach her at (317) 444-2780 or lstedman@courier-journal.com. Her mailing address is 200 W. Washington St., Suite M11, Indianapolis, Ind. 46204. Comment on this column, and read her previous columns, at www.courier-journal.com/lesley.
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