HARTFORD — A week after shepherding into law the largest tax increase in Connecticut history, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy began issuing layoff notices on Tuesday to the first of more than 4,700 state employees facing dismissal, after two months of negotiations with unions failed to reach an agreement on worker concessions and budget cuts.þþBoth sides said talks would continue and expressed hope for a breakthrough, but the notices marked an impasse that might have seemed unlikely when Mr. Malloy, a Democrat, was elected in November with heavy union support. The governor has warned of layoffs and wrenching program cuts since he announced his proposed spending plan on Feb. 16, saying that significant concessions from state workers and substantial program cuts were needed to produce a balanced budget.þþLast week, the legislature passed a two-year, $40.1 billion budget that assumed $1 billion each year in concessions. The notices sent on Tuesday were a reminder that those savings are still assumed rather than real, and that the alternative is thousands of layoffs, which the governor said would save the state about $455 million, as well as $545 million in additional spending cuts across state government.þþ“I want to be clear that this is not the road I wanted to go down,” Mr. Malloy said in a statement. “I didn’t want to lay people off, and I didn’t want to make additional spending cuts beyond the $780 million in spending we’ve already cut. But I have no choice.”þþ“I promised to deliver a budget that is balanced with no gimmicks,” he added, “and I will.”þþThe notices went to the first of 4,742 employees singled out for layoffs, which would be effective in the new fiscal year, beginning July 1. Program cuts are likely to push the number to more than 5,000 out of a full-time work force of more than 46,000.þþBut rather than a decisive line in the sand, the layoff notices were described by both sides as part of a process that seems to be unfolding in the traditional, protracted rhythms of labor negotiations. Neither side seemed inclined to set rigid deadlines.þþ“We’re going to keep talking until we reach a mutual agreement,” said Matt O’Connor, a spokesman for the consortium of unions negotiating with the state. “The hope,” he added, “is we reach a mutual agreement sooner rather than later, but that’s been the hope all along.”þþRoy Occhiogrosso, a Malloy spokesman, said the governor sent out the notices reluctantly. “I think he has the sense that not enough progress has been made to warrant delaying another day or two, and he felt it was important to begin this process in an orderly fashion in case no deal is reached,” Mr. Occhiogrosso said. “You can’t wait until the very end of the process and then do all the catching up.”þþThe layoffs vary across departments and agencies. The most would come at the Education Department, which would lose 1,413 of its 1,706 employees, including large numbers of teachers at vocational-technical schools. Also included in the cuts are 471 jobs in higher education, including the Connecticut state university system, and an additional 285 jobs at the University of Connecticut. With the state trying to maximize tax collections, largely spared is the Department of Revenue Services, where only 1.6 percent of the work force would be laid off.þþUnion officials said the layoffs would be disastrous at a time of widespread unemployment.þþ“Layoffs aren’t good for the economy; whether they’re private sector or public sector, it doesn’t make a difference,” Mr. O’Connor said. “The last thing Connecticut needs is more job cuts.”þþMr. Malloy said the concessions he sought in wages, health care and pension benefits were aimed at both the short-term savings necessary to balance this budget and the long-term structural savings needed to make state government sustainable.þþ“The state employee representatives have thus far not offered enough,” he said.
Source: NY Times
