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| Corrections costs: A window into the budget |
| By unionleader.com |
| Published: 04/18/2011 |
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A few weeks ago, Corrections Commissioner William Wrenn said that if the House budget passed, he would have to close the state prison in Berlin and eliminate its 185 jobs. Oh, those evil Republicans and their dastardly budget cuts! Except... the House didn't cut Wrenn's budget. The House budget for the Department of Corrections spends $5.9 million less on personnel than Gov. John Lynch's proposed budget for the department. But it doesn't cut Corrections spending. On the contrary, it increases it. The House proposes spending an average of $110 million on Corrections in each of the next two years. That's $4 million more per year than Corrections got in the current budget, for a total of $8 million over the biennium. If the department is getting an $8 million increase, then why is Wrenn still talking about cutting dozens of positions? State employee cost increases are the reason. Just in employee benefits alone, the department's costs grow by $10.6 million in the next budget. That doesn't include mandatory pay raises. The state could afford to keep staffing at current levels if the cost of compensation were not growing so rapidly. But every time legislators try to make changes to compensation, whether to benefits or pay, the unions fight it. The same scenario is playing out in Manchester and other localities around the state. Layoffs are being proposed or made because the cost of keeping each employee is growing beyond the government's ability to pay. Read More. |
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