Furloughs

As many as one-third of Maryland lawmakers have not returned a portion of their legislative salaries - despite having been urged to show solidarity with state workers facing furloughs. Amid budget woes, General Assembly leaders had encouraged lawmakers - whose pay is constitutionally protected - to voluntarily take payroll deductions or write a check to the state for the equivalent of as many as five days' pay. That's $605 for most members, and $785 for presiding officers. The initiative could raise more than $100,000, a tiny sum that won't make much difference in a $14 billion operating budget suffering from huge revenue shortfalls.

Ratcheting up the pressure on labor to cut costs, US Airways Group Inc. plans to furlough 103 pilots and reduce the size of its crew based at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, where the airline has announced a significant cutback.The furloughs came to light Tuesday when the carrier posted its flight schedule for the three-month period beginning July 1.The initial 60 layoffs are expected to be timed with the July 1 expiration of the pilots' no-furlough clause, according to union sources.

FURLOUGHING WORKERS rather than laying them off outright while President Clinton and Congress argue over balancing the budget may sound painless, but it's not. With one of every 10 federal employees calling Maryland home, this state is already feeling the sting. If the furloughs persist, that pain could become unbearable. Federal employees in Maryland are normally paid nearly $5 billion a month.For now only 600 of 14,000 Baltimore-area employees of the Social Security Administration have been declared "essential," but some may be back at work Monday to process new claims.

Baltimore County must pay an estimated $1.2 million in back wages to its unionized police officers because they were illegally furloughed for five days during a 1992 budget crunch, Maryland's highest court ruled yesterday.The Court of Appeals said in a unanimous ruling that a provision in the union's contract forbidding furloughs was valid and that the 1992 furloughs were not authorized by county or state law."Neither the Baltimore County charter nor the Baltimore County code contains any provision which authorizes what the county did here," Judge John C. Eldridge wrote in a 20-page decision.

A deficit once dismissed as "routine" is now forcing Baltimore's public school officials to cut dozens of administrative and support positions and to consider furloughs of up to 10 days for all workers, including teachers, officials said yesterday.The city school system is also seeking a cut of $10 million, or about 25 percent, from Educational Alternatives Inc. in its contract to run nine "Tesseract" schools this year -- savings that would be applied to reduce a deficit that could balloon to $31 million, they said.

The executive council for USAir's pilot union is expected to meet today in Reston, Va., to consider an agreement that would cut pilots' pay by 20 percent and allow the carrier to furlough up to 300 pilots.The union's leaders were scheduled to meet yesterday to review the agreement, but the meeting was postponed to give the two sides time to work out the details of the proposal, a union official said.The agreement reached Saturday between the company and the union provides for $190 million annually in concessions, including a 20 percent pay cut that would save the company $150 million a year for the next five years.

Baltimore illegally furloughed thousands of teachers an police officers to save money this year, according to a federal court ruling that could cost the city at least $3.3 million in back pay.The ruling could have implications far beyond Baltimore if employee unions around the state use similar arguments to challenge budgetary furloughs, union and legal experts said.The decision by Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Young involves members of the Baltimore Teachers Union and the city's Fraternal Order of Police, who were furloughed 2 1/2 days each between Jan. 16 and April 15. The judge ordered that their pay be restored within 30 days.

The Carroll Board of Education, despite protests from labor leaders,voted last night to furlough school employees for two days as the final piece of a $1.95 million cost-cutting plan.The vote came justa day after unions representing most of the district's 2,200 workersurged the school board to consider a cost-cutting plan that would instead trim about $700,000 in classroom supplies.But Board President Cheryl A. McFalls ruled out that possibility,and the board, by a 3-1 vote, backed her stance.

Baltimore County Executive Roger B. Hayden announced yesterday plans to dip into the paychecks of 20,000 county employees and said cuts in some services for taxpayers likely will be announced by next week.Mr. Hayden, who faces a $23.5 million cut in state aid announcedlast month, said he plans to furlough all 8,000 government workers for five days and will cut the school board's budget by $7.8 million, which will likely force the same furloughs for its 12,000 employees.The furloughs, which will save an estimated $13 million, will begin in February and be spread over the next five months on holidays.

County Executive Charles I. Ecker hopes Gov. William Donald Schaefer is still listening to him."We did not agree to fight the governor" over his proposal to slash $150 million in state aid to counties, Mr. Ecker said. "We agreed to work with the governor in making the budget cuts. Hopefully, we'll be able to meet with him again this week."Mr. Ecker took issue with Prince George's County Executive Paris N. Glendening, though he didn't mention him by name."We are not acquiescing to the $150 million cut at all," Mr. Glendening said after a meeting the governor had last week with county executives and Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke to discuss proposed cuts.

Baltimore's 1,600 firefighters and fire officers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday night to take five unpaid furlough days before June in order to help the city close a $60 million budget gap. The city's agreement with the two unions also calls for a pay freeze in the next fiscal year, but union members will be spared threatened pay cuts. The deal is worth $2.9 million to the city. Bob Sledgeski, head of the 1,300-member Baltimore Firefighters' Local 734, said the agreement passed by a 2-to-1 vote.

Baltimore city government would be closed for five days between October and June as most workers participate in a new furlough plan that the city's spending board will be asked to approve this week to help plug a $60.2 million gap in the city's $2.3 billion budget. Firefighters and police also would have to accept furloughs or equivalent reductions to make the cost-saving program work, city officials said, but union leaders are resisting any plan that takes their members off the streets, arguing that further cuts to their agencies would endanger the public.

Baltimorean Ben Greene stopped at the glass door entrance on West Preston Street on Friday and couldn't figure out why the state office building was locked. The lights were off, but no signs were posted to explain the closure. "Did they run out of money or something?" Greene asked, perplexed. As a matter of fact, the state is running short of cash. Gov. Martin O'Malley decided to close offices around Maryland and kept about 70,000 state employees home without pay as part of a plan to save $75 million and help close a budget gap of more than $700 million.

Maryland's courts are open Friday, but more than 1,000 public defenders, assistant attorneys general and other state lawyers are off that day - making for what some court employees are saying could be a waste of a workday. The Friday leading into Labor Day weekend is the first of five planned state shutdowns that, together with additional days of unpaid leave, will save about $75 million. Gov. Martin O'Malley announced furloughs for nearly all of the state's 70,000 workers last week. The executive branch furloughs cover state agencies, such as the Office of the Public Defender and the Maryland attorney general's office.

Look at it this way: We could be California. Or Arizona or New York. Maryland's budget problems are terrible. The fiscal year that ended two months ago "was the worst year on record for the modern income tax," David Roose, director of the Bureau of Revenue Estimates, wrote Tuesday in a report to policymakers. Thousands of state employees are again taking involuntary furloughs. Hundreds are being laid off. Police departments, fire stations, health clinics, schools and trash agencies are losing resources and delivering less.

When a retired Dennis Gist got tired of "walking from room to room" in his Upper Marlboro home, he took a state social services job working with troubled youth. He didn't want to put on a suit and tie every day again; he just wanted to do some good in the world. Now his wife, also retired from another job, works across the hall, making financial arrangements for long-term care of poor elderly residents. The Gists are at the forefront of a recession - the ranks of the needy have swelled at social services departments as more residents seek food stamps, cash assistance or other help - and now the economic downturn has come to their household.

Mayor Sheila Dixon plans to dip into the city's $13.5 million "undesignated surplus" funds, lay off about 100 city workers and implement across-the-board furloughs to close a $60.2 million budget shortfall caused by state cuts and declining city revenue estimates, according to union leaders who met with city officials this week and a budget document obtained by The Baltimore Sun. The plan also includes using $11 million to $12 million of excess funds...

Union leaders said Wednesday that a federal judge's ruling that furloughs in Prince George's County were unconstitutional bolsters their fight against similar measures by cash-strapped governments elsewhere. But labor law experts said it is unclear what impact the ruling will have outside Prince George's, given the narrow focus of the decision and the county's plan to appeal. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. found that Prince George's violated the contract clause of the Constitution by effectively reducing the salaries of 5,900 employees with 10-day furloughs last fiscal year.

If it were up to some budget-conscious Marylanders, state employees wouldn't get paid on their birthdays, and they would work in offices with thermostats set as high as 80 degrees in the summer. And while the citizens of the Free State are at it, they would raise money for state coffers by taxing commuters and collecting additional gun permit fees by easing restrictions on who can legally carry handguns. Gov. Martin O'Malley solicited ideas from the citizenry as he puzzles over how to slash another $470 million from a state budget that has already been whacked several times in recent years.

Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to outline about $300 million in budget cuts today that will mostly fall on state agencies. But future rounds of cutbacks could include furloughs of state employees, officials said. O'Malley, a Democrat, briefed legislative leaders on his proposed budget cuts over a two-hour dinner meeting at the governor's mansion in Annapolis Monday night. The governor must pare about $700 million from the $14 billion budget for the fiscal year that began this month because the recession has caused tax receipts to slump.