12-15-2010, 04:44 PM
This article is a hoot. Governor Scott acknowledges that State workers work REALLY HARD. Then he turns around and says he's going to cut their help so they can work REALLY REALLY HARDER. What a sweat shop mentality.
Article published Dec 13, 2010
Bill Cotterell: A new way of looking at state workers
Bill Cotterell
Notebook
There are two ways to look at the approach Gov. Rick Scott and the even-more-Republican Florida Legislature are taking to state employment in the 2011 legislative session.
If you like them, Scott and the legislative leaders are just being realistic and trying to get salary, pension and insurance costs under control. Most Floridians in the private sector don't have cheap insurance and relatively generous pensions — about 12 percent don't even have jobs — and the money just isn't there, to keep doing what the state has always done.
If you don't like the Scott-GOP approach to personnel, the new governor and his House and Senate allies are simply scapegoating state employees for a $2.5 billion revenue shortfall. It's easy to pick on "big government," even though the state's own Annual Workforce Report last week documented — for the umpteenth year running — that Florida has the nation's per-capita smallest and cheapest personnel system.
"Government workers are hard-working people. If you know people in government, you know they work their tails off," Scott told me in an interview last week. "A lot of it is how we're structured."
In preparing his first budget, he said, he wants to "streamline how government runs." During the campaign, Scott said Florida could save about $300 million by reducing the size of state government. He also said it could be done through attrition, with 12- to 16-percent turnover, although he's not ruling out layoffs.
"I'm more interested in making sure that people are doing the things that the public cares about the most, to prioritize what we're going to do," he said. "I'm trying to make sure what we don't do is say, 'Oh, gosh, we did that last year, so we're going to do it this year.' I want really ask, what are the priorities for the public?"
It's safe to say the state employee pension and insurance benefits are not high on the public's list of priorities. State Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, who chairs the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee, last week declared that "everything is on the table" in heading off a $1.1 billion deficit in costs of personnel benefits.
That includes a $275 million hole in the state insurance trust fund next fiscal year and an unfunded liability of $304 million in the state employee pension fund. Legislators started nibbling around the edges this year, passing a reduction in the 6.5-percent interest guarantee on Deferred Retirement Option Program — which Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed — and making all employees pay for insurance.
That meant Senior Management, Selected Exempt and elected officials would chip in one-sixth of the regular premium. But a Senate plan to make employees contribute one-fourth of a percent into the Florida Retirement System didn't pass.
It will all be back next year, and it will be mathematically irresistible. Scott says we're the only state with a fully employer-paid pension pot, and that's got to stop, so some level of employee contribution to the FRS is a sure bet next year.
New hires will be offered something similar to a 401(k) plan, no doubt. The "defined benefit" system will be phased out and replaced by the employee-controlled "defined benefit" approach.
Rep. Brad Drake, R-Eucheeanna, told Scott pension reform is easier when current employees are left out of it. "Grandfathered in" is what they call it around the Capitol.
"When you get one-on-one with them and you paint the picture, 'I'm not going to gore your ox, just all new hires,' most of the folks don't care what happens to the next guy — just don't mess with mine," he said during a roundtable discussion with Panhandle legislators.
It's also likely that the six-year vesting period for pensions will be lengthened, probably to 10 years. The "special risk" retirement credit of 3 percent may be reduced, or at least limited to employees with really dangerous jobs, as opposed to desk workers.
In insurance, we can expect to see more "health savings accounts." The state already has a low-premium, high-deductible insurance option, but with medical costs rising and the work force aging, the state will want to shift more of the cost to the employees and their families.
Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, got almost rhapsodic last week about how health savings accounts give employees an incentive to stay well and shop around for cheaper care. The concept crystallizes the difference between Republicans and Democrats — take responsibility for yourself vs. the government will take care of you.
It's significant that Scott comes to Tallahassee with no background in government. He's the first governor in modern history with no ties to the old way of doing things and a deep personal faith in the private-sector way of doing things.
"In business, if a guy can open up a business next door and figure out a way to do it less expensive than you, you lose. It's the same with other states," he told legislators over in Shalimar last week. To compete for jobs-producing new industry, he said, Florida has to operate cheaper than Alabama and Georgia — and everybody else.
But Scott said he's not just blaming the bureaucrats.
"My experience with government workers, everywhere I've ever done business, is, they work hard. The process is crazy sometimes, but they want to work hard," said Scott. "And if you tell them where you want to go, I think we're going to do fine. We're going to treat people with respect."
Contact Senior Political Writer Bill Cotterell at (850) 671-6545 or at bcotterell@tallahassee.com.
Article published Dec 13, 2010
Bill Cotterell: A new way of looking at state workers
Bill Cotterell
Notebook
There are two ways to look at the approach Gov. Rick Scott and the even-more-Republican Florida Legislature are taking to state employment in the 2011 legislative session.
If you like them, Scott and the legislative leaders are just being realistic and trying to get salary, pension and insurance costs under control. Most Floridians in the private sector don't have cheap insurance and relatively generous pensions — about 12 percent don't even have jobs — and the money just isn't there, to keep doing what the state has always done.
If you don't like the Scott-GOP approach to personnel, the new governor and his House and Senate allies are simply scapegoating state employees for a $2.5 billion revenue shortfall. It's easy to pick on "big government," even though the state's own Annual Workforce Report last week documented — for the umpteenth year running — that Florida has the nation's per-capita smallest and cheapest personnel system.
"Government workers are hard-working people. If you know people in government, you know they work their tails off," Scott told me in an interview last week. "A lot of it is how we're structured."
In preparing his first budget, he said, he wants to "streamline how government runs." During the campaign, Scott said Florida could save about $300 million by reducing the size of state government. He also said it could be done through attrition, with 12- to 16-percent turnover, although he's not ruling out layoffs.
"I'm more interested in making sure that people are doing the things that the public cares about the most, to prioritize what we're going to do," he said. "I'm trying to make sure what we don't do is say, 'Oh, gosh, we did that last year, so we're going to do it this year.' I want really ask, what are the priorities for the public?"
It's safe to say the state employee pension and insurance benefits are not high on the public's list of priorities. State Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, who chairs the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee, last week declared that "everything is on the table" in heading off a $1.1 billion deficit in costs of personnel benefits.
That includes a $275 million hole in the state insurance trust fund next fiscal year and an unfunded liability of $304 million in the state employee pension fund. Legislators started nibbling around the edges this year, passing a reduction in the 6.5-percent interest guarantee on Deferred Retirement Option Program — which Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed — and making all employees pay for insurance.
That meant Senior Management, Selected Exempt and elected officials would chip in one-sixth of the regular premium. But a Senate plan to make employees contribute one-fourth of a percent into the Florida Retirement System didn't pass.
It will all be back next year, and it will be mathematically irresistible. Scott says we're the only state with a fully employer-paid pension pot, and that's got to stop, so some level of employee contribution to the FRS is a sure bet next year.
New hires will be offered something similar to a 401(k) plan, no doubt. The "defined benefit" system will be phased out and replaced by the employee-controlled "defined benefit" approach.
Rep. Brad Drake, R-Eucheeanna, told Scott pension reform is easier when current employees are left out of it. "Grandfathered in" is what they call it around the Capitol.
"When you get one-on-one with them and you paint the picture, 'I'm not going to gore your ox, just all new hires,' most of the folks don't care what happens to the next guy — just don't mess with mine," he said during a roundtable discussion with Panhandle legislators.
It's also likely that the six-year vesting period for pensions will be lengthened, probably to 10 years. The "special risk" retirement credit of 3 percent may be reduced, or at least limited to employees with really dangerous jobs, as opposed to desk workers.
In insurance, we can expect to see more "health savings accounts." The state already has a low-premium, high-deductible insurance option, but with medical costs rising and the work force aging, the state will want to shift more of the cost to the employees and their families.
Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, got almost rhapsodic last week about how health savings accounts give employees an incentive to stay well and shop around for cheaper care. The concept crystallizes the difference between Republicans and Democrats — take responsibility for yourself vs. the government will take care of you.
It's significant that Scott comes to Tallahassee with no background in government. He's the first governor in modern history with no ties to the old way of doing things and a deep personal faith in the private-sector way of doing things.
"In business, if a guy can open up a business next door and figure out a way to do it less expensive than you, you lose. It's the same with other states," he told legislators over in Shalimar last week. To compete for jobs-producing new industry, he said, Florida has to operate cheaper than Alabama and Georgia — and everybody else.
But Scott said he's not just blaming the bureaucrats.
"My experience with government workers, everywhere I've ever done business, is, they work hard. The process is crazy sometimes, but they want to work hard," said Scott. "And if you tell them where you want to go, I think we're going to do fine. We're going to treat people with respect."
Contact Senior Political Writer Bill Cotterell at (850) 671-6545 or at bcotterell@tallahassee.com.