Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

New York’s imposed Governor Paterson (he was not elected, and in my opinion is un-electable) released his proposal for the 2009-2010 budget yeasterday (read it here). He has some interesting ideas, but a lot of bad misconceptions as well. The parts that concern me the most as a state employee is the part of the budget dealing with the State Workforce.

First off, he passes along the misconception that we are over-compensated by stating “State employees receive an average compensation of $62,453 plus generous fringe benefits.” Of course the problem with averages is that it is misleading. Certainly there are many state employees (myself included) making considerably less than $62,453 and I believe that the ones who are raising the average are part of the administration and management, not the rank and file worker. Yes we have excellent benefits. That is really what makes a state job attractive. If it was about salary I would have went with private industry. All of my friends in IT make considerably more than I do, and did right out of college as well. But I chose the state because of the benefits. So to assume that our benfit package is too generous is not looking at the whole picture.

Second, he wants to withold 5 days of pay. Using his average salary figure we can see that this amounts to $1,201.02. That is a lot of money to give up, especially for those workers who must live paycheck to paycheck.

Third, he wants us to give up our 3% raise. Unlike the 5 day salary deferrment this is a career-long loss. Again assuming the average salary, that is $1,873.59. But that is money that otherwise would have gone into base salary. So if an employee has 20 years left in their career that 3% loss has cost them at least $37,471.80. And that does not count any compounding or future raises.

Fourth, he is very vague on fringe beenfit savings. Is he referring to our share of our health insurance premiums? Or what? My health insurance premium will already be going up 37.25% in January. Any salary increases I might be getting would be going to pay for my more expensive health insurance, and even that won’t cover the cost increases. So what is his intention? To make us pay even more while he whittles away at our salaries?

It is still too early to tell what will actually happen, but it is clear to me that the Governor wants to lay both the blame and the burden on the working class of New York.