Furloughs, pay cuts offered as ideas by lawmakers to stave off layoffs

DES MOINES – Lawmakers say Democratic Gov. Chet Culver should seek state employee pay cuts or other sacrifices as he tries to renegotiate contracts with state-employee unions.

After ordering 10 percent across-the-board budget cuts to state government, Culver has asked three employee unions to re-enter negotiations of their contracts.

Culver is hopeful the move will help stave off layoffs, especially in public safety and corrections positions.

A contract ratified earlier this year by American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 61 froze base wages for state employees in the current fiscal year.

Culver has said he would not talk to the media about the negotiations while they were ongoing. AFSCME officials also have been tight-lipped.

Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, said furloughs could be something to take into consideration during negotiations to help avoid layoffs of state workers.

“Right now is a terrible time to lay people off,” Mascher said.

Culver already has ordered 7-day unpaid furloughs for more than 3,000 non-contract employees to save money.

Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, R-Chariton, believes rank-and-file state workers would be in favor of shared sacrifices to keep core functions intact.

“We have good, conscientious Iowa workers, and I think they'll be all for that,” McKinley said.

State Rep. Christopher Rants, a Sioux City Republican and candidate for governor, said Culver has not been a strong enough advocate on behalf of the state during contract negotiations.

“This is part of the problem you get when the person who's supposed to be looking out for the taxpayer is sitting across the table from his No. 1 political supporter,” Rants said.

Rants believes the base wage freezes imposed this year mean nothing if step increases are still allowed for some state employees as a part of union contracts.

Those step increases, handed out to good performers, can reach 4.5 percent. More than 8,700 contract state employees received step increases in fiscal year 2009.

From July 1 through September of this year, 1,464 contract employees received step increases.

“We warned people the state couldn't afford it at that time, but Culver went ahead and made the deal,” Rants said.

House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said the current situation is not the fault of the unions, but because Culver approved a budget that spent too much.

He cited proposals by House Republicans to save the state money that were rebuffed. One of those measures would have required state employees to pay $50 or an additional $50 toward their health insurance each month.

Paulsen is hopeful the contract talks are productive and don't put the state in a position of laying off corrections officers and state troopers.

“Public safety is not a place where we want to compromise,” Paulsen said.