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DID YOU KNOW: House Budget is Bad for State Employees and Retirees · The SEANC View

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  Hey y'all, it's Artis Watkins with the State Employees Association with Did
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  You Know? Did you know the House budget came out today?
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  For state employees and retirees, here's how it looks. We'll start with retirees, actually.
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  The Senate budget shut retirees out altogether, gave them zero over each of the next two years.
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  At least the House budget gives them something. It's not enough,
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  but 1% one-time bonus this year, 2% one-time bonus next year for retirees.
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  But for active state employees, the House recommended a 2.5% raise this year and 0% next year.
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  And they're pretty excited that they did better than the Senate,
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  is the way they said it, for state employees.
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  But the way they got there is to cut 3,000 positions in state government from the vacant positions.
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  Remember, state government's running a vacancy rate over 20%.
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  But more than that, we're looking at state employees who have been cut in terms
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  of total numbers of state employees over the last 15 years by 25%.
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  We have 25% less positions than 15 years ago, even though our population increased by 16%.
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  So to take 3,000 more positions from the public and to put that much more on
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  the employees that are left, that's awful for state employees,
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  but it's even worse for the public.
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  Because public safety, efficiency, whether you stand in long lines if you have
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  to deal with the government, all of these things are impacted by not having enough people.
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  And there's a one-quarter of 1% reduction in income tax in the House budget.
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  I mean, think about that. You're paying the same taxes, more or less,
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  within a couple of percentage points that you were 15 years ago.
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  But the public services you're getting are 25% less for that and getting ready
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  to be even less while the population's grown.
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  So a quarter percent back in your pocket to get slower, less efficient,
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  less safe public services hardly seems like a good bargain.