When is a cut a cut?
When you think of a reduction in workforce, for example, what exactly does that mean? Let's come back to that in a minute.
I sit on the budget subcommittee that deals with the Administration & Regulation portion of state government. We call it Admin & Reg for short. It isn't a particularly glamorous part of state government, but, for example, we oversee the Dept. of Administrative Services, the Auditor of the State, the Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Office, the Dept. of Commerce, the Governor's Office, the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy, the Dept. of Human Rights, the Dept. of Inspections & Appeals, the IPERS Administration, the Dept. of Management, the Dept. of Revenue, the Secretary of State, the Treasurer of the State, and last, but not least, the Rebuild Iowa Office.
In examining just this portion of state government, you may have heard or read about the 10% across the board budget cuts the governor implemented last summer and about all the hardships that have been created in state government.
That's what leads me to the original question. When is a cut, a cut? If we look at the total full-time equivalent positions, or FTEs for short, we see that in the 2010 budget the Admin & Reg portion of state government had 1607.31 FTEs. For the current 2011 budget, we see that those FTEs were "cut" to 1544.33. That would sound like a workforce reduction of 62.98 FTEs, right? Not exactly . . . . If we look back to the 2009 budget, we see that in Admin & Reg the total FTEs were 1480.66. That means in 2010 we actually increased FTEs by 126.75. So, while it is true we reduced the 2010 FTEs by 62.98, overall, we still have 63.67 more than in 2009. There is no way to reduce spending when we literally grew government by 63.67 FTEs from 2009 until now.
That is when a "cut" is not really a cut, and that is what Paul Harvey used to say is "the rest of the story."
As always, I want to hear from you. My Senate number is (515) 281-3371 and my home number is (515) 432-7327 or write me at: State Capitol, Des Moines, IA 50319 or at my home address: 1313 Quill Avenue, Boone, IA 50036 or email me at jerry.behn@legis.state.ia.us.
When you think of a reduction in workforce, for example, what exactly does that mean? Let's come back to that in a minute.
I sit on the budget subcommittee that deals with the Administration & Regulation portion of state government. We call it Admin & Reg for short. It isn't a particularly glamorous part of state government, but, for example, we oversee the Dept. of Administrative Services, the Auditor of the State, the Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Office, the Dept. of Commerce, the Governor's Office, the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy, the Dept. of Human Rights, the Dept. of Inspections & Appeals, the IPERS Administration, the Dept. of Management, the Dept. of Revenue, the Secretary of State, the Treasurer of the State, and last, but not least, the Rebuild Iowa Office.
In examining just this portion of state government, you may have heard or read about the 10% across the board budget cuts the governor implemented last summer and about all the hardships that have been created in state government.
That's what leads me to the original question. When is a cut, a cut? If we look at the total full-time equivalent positions, or FTEs for short, we see that in the 2010 budget the Admin & Reg portion of state government had 1607.31 FTEs. For the current 2011 budget, we see that those FTEs were "cut" to 1544.33. That would sound like a workforce reduction of 62.98 FTEs, right? Not exactly . . . . If we look back to the 2009 budget, we see that in Admin & Reg the total FTEs were 1480.66. That means in 2010 we actually increased FTEs by 126.75. So, while it is true we reduced the 2010 FTEs by 62.98, overall, we still have 63.67 more than in 2009. There is no way to reduce spending when we literally grew government by 63.67 FTEs from 2009 until now.
That is when a "cut" is not really a cut, and that is what Paul Harvey used to say is "the rest of the story."
As always, I want to hear from you. My Senate number is (515) 281-3371 and my home number is (515) 432-7327 or write me at: State Capitol, Des Moines, IA 50319 or at my home address: 1313 Quill Avenue, Boone, IA 50036 or email me at jerry.behn@legis.state.ia.us.
