Back in 1991, the toll on the state work force was even deeper - Schaefer proposed cutting 1,766 employees, including state troopers and medevac employees, as well as eliminating or severely curtailing aid for some of the most vulnerable in the state, like the poor and disabled, to close the deficit.
Among Schaefer's proposals was to wipe out all prisoner education programs, laying off the 163 employees who conducted GED and other classes and operated libraries for the inmates, to save about $5 million annually.
With nothing to lose anyway, the prison educators decided to fight back.
"We said, 'Don't fire us, we've got a plan,' " Steurer said. The plan was for everyone to work four- rather than five-day weeks, and take a matching 20 percent pay cut. Armed with research showing that educational programs reduce recidivism, and with prison officials on their side, loath to be left with suddenly idled inmates, the teachers made their case. They signed up to testify before legislative committees, met with Grasmick and were ultimately re-instated - although at 80 percent of their previous work hours and salary.
Steurer is now executive director of the Correctional Education Association, a nonprofit professional organization based in Elkridge that he had started to work with when he was still with the state. He retired in 2004 from the state.
I don't know that a group of employees could similarly save their jobs this way now - and I'm amazed at how quickly it all went down.
I talked to Fred Puddester, more recently in the news as the head of the pro-slots initiative but back in 1991one of Schaefer's budget chiefs. Despite the dire predicament the state faced in 1991 - news accounts quote Archbishop William Keeler jumping into the fray to help protect the poor from losing assistance - Puddester thinks Annapolis faces an even worse crisis today.
"In '91, we were coming off of several years of robust revenue growth," Puddester said. "We sort of bulked up. State government has been sort of starved the last several years. So the patient has started off a little weaker today."
Still, he, like O'Malley, is optimistic that federal stimulus legislation will go a long way toward helping states like Maryland weather the recession.
As for Steurer, he hopes there's a lesson from his own small victory in a previous recession that applies to today's.
"When things are really tough," he said, "I think it's helpful if everyone can spread the pain a little bit."
