Avoid Layoffs

Seeking to avoid layoffs, Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has imposed an immediate hiring freeze for all city workers except police officers and teachers.The freeze is expected to last until the end of the current fiscal year on June 30.Mr. Schmoke said at his weekly news briefing yesterday that the freeze was necessary because of projections that revenues from income and property taxes would grow by only 1 percent as of July 1, 1995."I am ordering a complete personnel hiring freeze for all departments, excluding the hiring of police and teachers as appropriate to meet enrollment needs.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon delayed plans to buy a firetruck, reduced outside legal funds and took $100,000 from a witness protection program run by the Housing Department, three of nearly 100 snips Wednesday that the city's agencies recommended to reduce spending by $12.9 million and contribute to the overall $60.2 million budget reduction program. "It was a difficult task," said Baltimore's budget director, Andrew Kleine. "I think we have come up with a plan that is not going to be overly detrimental to key services."

Baltimore officials and union leaders representing the city's firefighters reached an agreement yesterday that will preclude any layoffs of firefighters during the fiscal year that ends June 30.However, the proposal, which must still be approved by the mayor and 1,700 members of the unions representing the firefighters, does not affect the planned closing and consolidation of some of the city's fire stations. It also does not affect the planned elimination of 219 city positions outside the Fire Department.

Increased demand for some General Motors trucks has helped General Motors' Powertrain Baltimore Transmission Plant avert a weeklong shutdown that was to have started Monday, a local spokesman for the plant said yesterday. The spokesman, John Raut, had said last month that the plant was planning to shut down and temporarily lay off all of its hourly workers for the week. The plant employs 238 people. But demand for some company vehicles has improved, including the Chevy Silverado and Sierra pickup trucks, for which the Baltimore plant makes six-speed automatic transmissions, Raut said yesterday.

After wrangling for nearly a year over development impact fees that supporters say are vital to pay for schools, roads and other services, County Executive John R. Leopold announced a new plan Tuesday aimed at easing a difficult business climate for builders and developers, providing a 20-month reprieve from new fees that could spark hiring and avoid layoffs. Leopold, who calls the plan an economic stimulus, says phasing in the fees would allow the construction industry time to recover from an economic downturn that has brought development to a virtual standstill in recent months.

North Arundel Hospital plans to offer early retirement to a "limited" number of employees later this month, but no layoffs are planned, administrators confirmed yesterday.The early retirement offer "is a way to try to make us both more efficient and effective," said James R. Walker, president and chief executive.Mr. Walker said the offer was "for a very limited number of associates," but he would not discuss how many or which departments would be affected.He also would not discuss the criteria those employees would have to meet to be eligible for the offer, saying, "I'm not at liberty to reveal them because we haven't revealed them to the staff."

Chanting "Save our jobs -- no layoffs" and "No pay raise for Schaefer," more than 400 angry state workers staged a lunchtime protest today outside the state office building on West Preston Street.Officials of the Maryland Classified Employees Association, which sponsored the demonstration, said they were responding to Gov. William Donald Schaefer's announcement yesterday that the state could begin sending layoff notices to as many as 1,800 state workers Monday."Will it stop at 1,800? No one knows that for sure," Joe Cook, director of field services for MCEA, shouted into a bullhorn.

County employees probably will receive their last reprieve tomorrow,as the Carroll commissioners announce their fourth round of budget cuts in less than a year.And while the commissioners are expected to announce that they were able to avoid layoffs or furloughs of the county's 600 employees as they chopped more than $3 million from the county's $115 million budget, an anticipated fifth round of cuts in January probably would hit those workers."We're practically milking a dry cow as it is now," said Commissioner Vice President Elmer C. Lippy.

Convinced there is no alternative, Gov. William Donald Schaefer says the state could begin sending layoff notices to as many as 1,800 state workers next Monday.Although Schaefer has accepted a handful of cost-saving suggestions made this week by legislative leaders, he said there is no practical alternative to layoffs to help erase the state's $243 million budget deficit."If there were alternatives that would work without disrupting our forward progress, without disrupting our work force, I would have suggested it," he said yesterday.

The County Commissioners say they will resort to salary freezes, layoffs, service reductions, lower school funding and higher service fees before they raise property taxes.And, as the county's financialcrunch continues to worsen, most -- if not all -- of those money-saving options may be employed by a county facing its worst fiscal mess in more than a decade."This year, as far as I'm concerned, we're going to cut whatever it takes," said Commissioner Julia W. Gouge. "But we have to look at the very broad picture, and more taxes right now would be a mistake."

As Harford County school officials decide where to cut $10.5 million from the current budget, schools Superintendent Jacqueline C. Haas said recently that no employees would be laid off and that vacant teaching positions would be filled. Haas and other school officials say they will focus on trimming construction, repair and maintenance projects that don't directly affect teaching. The cuts come in response to County Executive David Craig's request two weeks ago to all county departments to immediately reduce the current operating budget by 5 percent.

After wrangling for nearly a year over development impact fees that supporters say are vital to pay for schools, roads and other services, County Executive John R. Leopold announced a new plan Tuesday aimed at easing a difficult business climate for builders and developers, providing a 20-month reprieve from new fees that could spark hiring and avoid layoffs. Leopold, who calls the plan an economic stimulus, says phasing in the fees would allow the construction industry time to recover from an economic downturn that has brought development to a virtual standstill in recent months.

With help from the Abell Foundation, the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore has received a $1.2 million bank credit it needs to get through the next two months without firing employees and stiffing vendors, officials said. Zoo officials do not expect to spend the entire line of credit from PNC Bank because revenues have improved since the March birth of an elephant -- whose name will be unveiled at his public debut Saturday. And officials are optimistic that a baby camel's visit in May will continue to boost attendance.

To help the city school system achieve the financial respectability it so badly seeks, Mayor Martin O'Malley is proposing to lend it money from a fund that has helped city government accomplish the same goal. Taking $8 million from the city's so-called rainy day fund to help the system avoid extensive classroom layoffs indicates how seriously O'Malley views the schools' budget crisis. The fund, painstakingly accumulated over the past several years, is typically used for emergencies such as weather-related costs and is crucial in maintaining the city's creditworthiness.

After months of unprecedented public discussion about the dire financial situation of Anne Arundel County, Executive Janet S. Owens has opted to prepare a proposed budget that would avoid the layoff of any county employees, her spokeswoman said last week. But despite Owens' plan for no layoffs in the proposal she will release Thursday, she already has drafted legislation that would give her greater flexibility in cutting staff if the county's financial situation gets worse. "She is preparing for various scenarios," said spokeswoman Jody Hedeman Couser.

Shortly after a midnight deadline, Baltimore's two firefighters unions grudgingly agreed yesterday to tentative two-year contracts with the city that nearly triple their health care costs and offer no pay raise in the first year. Union and city officials reached the agreement after two months of talks and a final 14 1/2 -hour negotiating session. "We're coming off the best contract we ever had and we're going to the worst contract we've ever had," said Steve Fugate, president of the Fire Officers Union Local 964. "As bad as it is, we've done the best we can do."

Baltimore County government is likely to lay off employees for the first time next month."There will be people cuts. I don't see any way to reduce programs and services without reducing the size of the work force. Most likely is a layoff...," said County Executive Roger B. Hayden.But there was no announcement yesterday concerning the number of workers who might lose their jobs, what departments they might come from and when layoffs might take effect. Mr. Hayden said he won't know for sure for about a month.

Baltimore County government is virtually certain for the first time, to lay off employees, Executive Roger B. Hayden said yesterday."There will be people cuts. I don't see any way to reduce programs and services without reducing the size of the work force. Most likely is a layoff. It's like Ivory soap," Mr. Hayden said, referring to that product's advertised purity of 99.44 percent.But his announcement of the number of workers who will lose their jobs -- and when the layoffs will take effect -- won't come for at least a month, Mr. Hayden said in an interview about the county's $31.7 million revenue shortfall in the current fiscal year.

Hewing to his usual cautious fiscal approach, Howard County Executive James N. Robey's $824 million final first-term budget proposal contains no tax increases or layoffs, but denies county schools over $6 million in spending requests. Like other area executives, Robey blamed the recession for a minimal 1.6 percent spending increase, and a local first - the use of up to $15 million from the Rainy Day Fund to pay this year's bills. "We saw a spring shower on the horizon when it came to the economy, but it turned into a thunderstorm," Robey said about last spring's projections and the income tax revenue losses that followed.