State Employees

As an unemployed professional in his 50s, I found it difficult to sympathize with the caterwauling of our discontented state employee and recent college graduate over being furloughed for five days, when I've been furloughed for four months and counting ("O'Malley balances budget on the backs of state workers," Readers respond, Jan. 25). Unless you happen to work on Wall Street, you've most likely seen your real wages plummet throughout your entire career. In welcoming the writer to the real world, I'd like to suggest that he thank his lucky stars he has a job at all. Doug Ebbert, Bel Air Send letters to the editor to talkback@baltimoresun.

To listen to Maryland House Speaker Michael Busch, the state is starving. "You're down to bone and gristle now when it comes to state government," the Democrat recently said in response to the $454 million cut from the current budget last month by the Board of Public Works. The state has burned $736 million worth of flab from the $14 billion 2010 operating budget in the past two months. But the trims do not imperil big government in Maryland. And they resemble a series of bulimic purges more than any systemic dietary changes - meaning more rounds of cuts will be necessary to balance the budget in coming years.

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.

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 said Wednesday that Baltimore residents might see a "change in services" and city workers will face furloughs and layoffs to close a $60 million spending gap opened by the most recent state aid cuts and slumping tax revenues. "We are looking at a number of areas," Dixon said. "There will be layoffs." The city laid off more than 150 workers in June when it adopted its $2.3 billion budget. City Council members said yesterday that they would take voluntary furlough days to show solidarity with city workers.

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.

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.

Group homes are no panacea; Rosewood will be missed In your editorial on the closing of the Rosewood Center ("Rosewood's reckoning," July 5), you write, "The strain of this transition on some residents and their loved ones has no doubt been significant. For some, Rosewood has been their home for decades. It's no surprise that not everyone is pleased with what has taken place. Group homes can have their faults, too." In fact, not everyone is pleased with the closure of Rosewood, and for good reason.

In principle, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has an excellent argument for the so-called "fair share" law that went into effect in Maryland this week. It negotiates contracts for tens of thousands of state employees, whether they are members of the union or not. Conducting those negotiations costs money, and it isn't right that nonmembers get the benefits without paying their share of the costs. But the potential side effects of the law are cause for concern.

Gov. Martin O'Malley signed an executive order Thursday that will impose a ban on the use of hand-held cell phones by Maryland executive branch employees while driving state-owned vehicles. O'Malley said he was taking the action as part of a new driver safety program. Cell phone use has been identified in numerous studies as one of the leading distractions drivers face on the roads. The governor's action follows another legislative session in which the General Assembly rejected curbing cell phone use while driving.