About 70,000 state employees would see their salaries reduced under a furlough proposal from Gov. Martin O'Malley to save $75 million in the middle of the latest budget crisis.
The plan includes a shutdown of routine state government operations for five days around holidays, including the Friday before the coming Labor Day weekend.
The highest paid employees - those earning more than $100,000 a year - would lose two weeks' pay. Lowest-paid workers would be docked for three days. Salaries would return to current levels next year.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the largest state worker union, decried the proposal, saying O'Malley shouldn't balance the budget "on the backs" of workers. Still, union director Patrick Moran said the furlough plan is preferable to layoffs, which would have been "unthinkable."
The $75 million in savings from furloughs equates to roughly 1,500 in layoffs. Moran, who has been involved in negotiations with the governor's office, said an initial proposal had called for 2,500 layoffs.
O'Malley, a Democrat, plans to outline today a package of $470 million in budget cuts, which includes the furloughs, and to seek approval from the Board of Public Works on Wednesday. Documents detailing the furlough plan were obtained by The Baltimore Sun.
Budget Secretary T. Eloise Foster, in a letter to labor officials, said the state would "give appropriate consideration in future negotiations to the sacrifices made by state employees." She said the state would be willing to consider additional cost-of-living increases, paid leave days or other concessions.
"We anticipate that at some as yet undetermined future date, the national and state economies will recover," she wrote. She called the furloughs "painful but necessary" budget reductions.
Because elected officials can't be forced to take midterm salary reductions under the state constitution, the governor and Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown plan to pay out of pocket for the equivalent of 10 days' pay, according to an aide.
The governor has been in budget-cutting mode for much of his term that began in 2007, as the economy slid and tax collections stalled. The latest round comes just one month into the new budget year.
Republicans have complained that the governor should have acted more decisively to bring spending in line with revenues earlier.
