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July 7, 2007
HARRISBURG - On what could be the last work day for the foreseeable future for more than 24,000 Pennsylvania state employees, a Department of Environmental Protection worker on Friday sized up the budget stalemate at the center of the impending upheaval.
It's the job of the General Assembly and the governor to pass the state budget on time, said environmental planner Everald McDonald.
"Just as we get paid to do our work here, this is what they get paid for," said McDonald, 33, of Elizabethtown. "Somebody's not doing their job."
Across the capital, state workers whose jobs have been deemed "non-critical" will be furloughed indefinitely without pay at 12:01 a.m. Monday -- unless a budget is approved before then -- expressed anger, frustration and resignation over the prospect of the unprecedented action. The state government has operated without a budget since Sunday.
"I just don't think this should have ever happened. It's out of our hands. We have no control," said Sheila Miller, 57, of Shippensburg, a clerk for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, where almost half of the prospective furloughs are scheduled to occur.
"People are very upset about this, because we didn't think this would really happen," Miller said.
Melanie Sterling, 46, of Bernville, a PennDOT manager with 23 years at the department, thinks more could have been done to avoid the present circumstances.
"They know they have to pass a budget yearly, and it seems to me they should be working on it harder so it doesn't get to this situation," she said.
During a monthlong budget showdown in 1991, state employees' paychecks were deferred, but unpaid furloughs have not previously gotten beyond the threat stage.
This year, there is a growing sense that a timely compromise is impossible and furloughs inevitable.
If furloughs occur, all state parks and driver licensing centers will close Monday. So will Pennsylvania's five slot-machine casinos, which are electronically monitored by state Revenue Department employees who would be laid off. Liquor stores and the state lottery would continue to operate, however, because they are financed with the money they generate and not from the state's general fund.
Almost 52,000 workers with "critical" responsibilities, including state police and prison guards, would continue to work and be paid on time. The rest -- about 2,000 top administration officials -- would continue to work but would not be paid until a new budget is in place.
The threat of a partial government shutdown was not precipitated by a financial crisis.
In fact, the state ended the last fiscal year with a surplus of almost $650 million.
Rather, it is a clash of political wills between a governor re-elected last year with more than 60 percent of the vote and the General Assembly's leadership team.
The Legislature's ranks were decimated in the same election because of a generous pay raise that it approved for its own members and soon repealed amid a public outcry in 2005.
Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, wants the Legislature to approve his initiatives -- expanded funding for highways and mass transit and a new tax on electricity usage to finance programs to promote conservation and alternative energy -- as well as a $27 billion-plus budget. Leaders of the Republican majority in the Senate want a more austere budget and argue that more time is needed to scrutinize Rendell's proposals.
Jennifer Beaudet, 30, whose husband was recently hired by PennDOT and faces being furloughed, was waiting inside the department's office center with their four children -- ages 2 to 11 -- while her grandmother got a new license photo Friday. She said the family looks forward to being covered by the state's generous health insurance when they become eligible in December, but that a furlough would hurt.
"He's the breadwinner, so that means we're going to have to borrow money from family to make rent and make our bills," the Harrisburg resident said.
Most state workers are scheduled to receive bonuses of $1,250 later this month under their union contracts -- a sore point for many of them as they contemplate the wages they would lose if furloughed.
"If we're off for a week, that depletes that," said Tracy Eshenauer, 40, a claims examiners for the state treasurer's office.
Furloughed workers would continue to be covered by the state's health plan as long as money is available in the employee benefits trust fund to cover their share of the premiums.
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