SEA got $74 per hour stat from DAS

Yesterday, we linked to DAS Commissioner Linda Hodgden's op-ed claiming that the State Employees Association was using faulty information, including the claim that some part-time workers were making $74 an hour. SEA President Gary Smith posted his response in the comments section of the Union Leader article.

The numbers for how many part time state employees and what they're paid came straight from Administrative Services (Commissioner Hodgdon) in reporting to the Legislature for the Fiscal Note in HB 662. Follow the below link to look it up for yourself.

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2009/HB0662.html

HB 662 FISCAL NOTE

AN ACT relative to paid sick leave for employees.

FISCAL IMPACT:

The Department of Labor states this bill will increase state expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2009 and each year thereafter. The Department of Administrative Services, New Hampshire Association of Counties, and New Hampshire Municipal Association state this bill may increase state, county, and local expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2009 and each year thereafter. This bill will have no fiscal impact on state, county, or local revenues.

METHODOLOGY:

The Department of Labor states this bill requires employers to provide paid sick leave for employees. The Department states a poster, rules, and forms would need to be developed, increasing the Departments costs by an indeterminable amount. The Department currently has a process for filing complaints and holding administrative hearings, including administering civil penalties. However, because the Department has no data to estimate how this activity may increase under this bill, the full fiscal impact cannot be determined at this time.

The Department of Administrative Services states this bill will allow paid sick leave for both full-time and part-time employees. The state does not provide leave accrual for part-time employees at the 40-hour amount identified in this bill. Because the Department cannot estimate the number of employees taking sick leave, or the extent to which additional human resources will be required to cover sick employees, the fiscal impact cannot be determined at this time. However, the Department estimates if every part-time employee took the full sick leave amount and each employee was required to be covered by another employee at the average pay for that position, the cost for a 40-hour week would be as follows:


Type of PT Employee
Number of Employees
Average Hourly Wage
Total

Adjunct Faculty
1,727
$306.80
$21,193,744

Classified Employees
3,628
$13.42
$1,947,510

Judicial Branch
211
$57.71
$487,072

Non-classified Employees
1,473
$74.11
$4,366,561


The New Hampshire Association of Counties states to the extent full and part-time county employees are not already provided 40 hours of paid sick leave each calendar year, or to the extent employees are not currently allowed sick leave for all of the reasons identified as allowable reasons in this bill, county expenditures may increase if other personnel are required to cover the sick days. As the Association cannot estimate the number of employees without sick leave or how many may require coverage by other personnel, the fiscal impact cannot be determined at this time.

The New Hampshire Municipal Association states to the extent full and part-time municipal employees are not already provided 40 hours of paid sick leave each calendar year, or to the extent employees are not currently allowed sick leave for all of the reasons identified as allowable reasons in this bill, local expenditures may increase if other personnel are required to cover the sick days. As the Association cannot estimate the number of employees without sick leave or how many may require coverage by other personnel, the fiscal impact cannot be determined at this time.

This bill does not include an appropriation or establish positions.
- Gary Smith, Concord NH

Linda Hodgdon: Faulty information harming SEA members

Department of Administrative Services Commissioner Linda Hodgden writes a column in this morning's Union Leader claiming that bad information is harming members of the State Employees Association.

The union claimed that the state has part-timers earning $74 an hour, which is simply not correct. Part-time employees are paid a range of salaries depending on whether they are part-time judges, adjunct faculty at a community college, cleaning staff or toll attendants. The most recent data from 2009 indicates the average rate of pay for a part-time classified employee to be $14 per hour.

The union claimed the number of paid consultants has increased in this budget, which is also not true. Consultant salaries did not increase 40 percent. They are simply being reported in a much more transparent way under the new financial system that went into effect in July. A large portion of departments' contract expenditures are now correctly reported as consultants. The biggest change was at the Department of Transportation.

Tax, fee revenues $26m short

Kevin Landrigan reports in the Nashua Telegraph that state revenues at the end of September are short of the budget plan, but not as bad as they could have been.

Administrative Services Commissioner Linda Hodgdon said she took some solace September was a big revenue month, and the state’s revenue shortfall of $8.5 million was smaller than the one in July and August combined.

“We knew going into this we were going to see some negatives at the beginning of the year, and hopefully, we will see more positive going into the next calendar year,” Hodgdon said.

Senate Republican Leader Peter Bragdon, of Milford, said the shortfall will be a challenge for lawmakers but is smaller than had been feared to this point.

“We still take issue with the last minute decision when they put this budget together to raise revenue estimates by $75 million. I think we need to get later into the year to know for sure whether these estimates will hold up or not,” Bragdon said.

In the Concord Monitor, Shira Schoenberg says the state budget is showing some encouraging signs.

Colin Manning, spokesman for Gov. John Lynch, attributed the fall-off from predictions to the economy. "Revenue numbers from September show the economy continues to struggle, which is why we have to continue to watch revenues and spending very closely," Manning said.

But overall, the numbers were positive for the state.

Last month, Republicans raised alarms when revenue predictions fell $17 million short in a month that was expected to bring in just $111 million. But this month, even Senate Republican Leader Peter Bragdon was satisfied.

"Next month, October is supposed to be another high month and if that kind of performance can repeat, things will look on a better footing," Bragdon said. "It's certainly a very positive sign."

DAS responds to hiring freeze study

DAS Commissioner Linda Hodgden has provided additional information on our report on the 2008 Hiring Freeze. We're happy to publish her letter here.
DAS Letter on Waviers 09-29-09

State revenue falls behind

Shira Schoenberg reports in the Concord Monitor on the dismal revenue figures from the month of August, as well as an explanation from the Lynch Administration.

Department of Administrative Services Commissioner Linda Hodgdon said part of the reason for the shortfall is economic, and is due to the way the projections were developed. The yearly revenue projections were set by the Legislature, working with commissioners and economists. Once the budget was passed, state agencies made the monthly projections.

Hodgdon said the monthly estimates were based on three-year averages, and the economy has worsened over those years. Because she did not know when the economy would recover, Hodgdon made the estimates as if the economy would remain the same throughout the year. That means revenues might be lower than expectations now, but could exceed expectations if the economy rebounds. "I didn't assume that by a particular month that's the month the economic recovery will happen, and more heavily weight revenue in that period," Hodgdon said. "There's no one right way to do it because no one can tell you exactly when economic recovery's going to happen."

Fiscal Committee examines Lynch waivers

(CONCORD) The Legislative Fiscal Committee yesterday got its first look at the 352 waivers that Governor John Lynch made to his own Executive Orders instituting a hiring freeze, a ban on out of state travel, and limits of equipment purchases.

Administrative Services Commissioner Linda Hodgden answered the Committee's questions about the report, which shows 352 exceptions to the Governor's budget controls in Fiscal Year 2009, totaling $6.2 million in spending. Hodgden says her office estimates that Executive Order 2008-01 resulted in $13.3 million in savings since Lynch issued it in February 2008.

Under the Order, Lynch retained the power to waive any of the three spending restraints if Department heads requested an exception in writing. Hodgden says she's headed up a Waiver Committee at the Department of Administrative Services which carefully reviews each request before singing off. She credits her fellow Commissioners for limiting their waiver requests to only their most pressing needs, but says not all requests were granted.

The Josiah Bartlett Center has asked to see all department requests for budget waivers. At Hodgden's suggestion, we will submit a formal request under RSA 91-A, the New Hampshire Right to Know Law. Hodgden says that her committee has worked diligently to make sure only the most urgent staffing and equipment needs receive waivers, and that she tries to delay filling vacant positions as long as possible in order to maximize savings in the budget.

Committee Chair Marjorie Smith (D-Durham) took issue with several waivers granted for expensive equipment purchases, including 17 flashlights for the Department of Corrections costing $110 each, bullet-proof vests for the Liquor Commission, and five fax machines each costing $350. Representative Neal Kurk (R-Weare) thanked Hodgden for complying with the reporting requirements of the Order, but asked why it took nearly 18 months for Fiscal to receive its first Exceptions Report.

Hodgden responded that her office reported on exception granted in FY08 last year, and has submitted three separate updates on the impact of the Governor's Executive Orders since March.

Senate Minority Leader Peter Bragdon (R-Milford) asked about one trip that caught his eye, a one-day journey to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Hodgden explained that a state worker had been dispatched to retrieve a juvenile runaway, and not on a long Caribbean vacation.

The Committee also questioned a discrepancy between two DAS reports relating to the Executive Orders. The 60-day report, issued in July, stated that Administrative Services had processed $7.1 million in savings, and was on track for the original estimate of $8 million. But the waiver report, written two weeks ago, showed $13.3 million in savings.

Hodgden explained that the two estimates were generated by separate teams within her own office using different methods. She claimed the August report, with the higher savings figure, was more accurate as it was compiled using more recent and detailed data. The report itself did not describe how DAS arrived at its estimate. The Josiah Bartlett Center has asked for more information on the Department's methodology.

While the report includes $6.2 million in waivers granted by the Governor, Hodgden told the Committee that the full cost has not yet been felt. Several positions were filled by waivers late in the year, so no paychecks have yet been issued. Those costs will show up in FY10.

Earlier in the meeting, the Fiscal Committee officially accepted over $100 million in federal funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The bulk of the funding is directed at the Department of Health and Human Services. These funds were anticipated in the budget adopted by the Legislature in June.

On several items, Kurk questions state officials on whether the federal money would expand benefits and services to individuals not currently receiving them. He worried that the "free" money would boost the state's budget baseline, and put "tremendous pressure on the Legislature" to replace the federal funds with state dollars once the ARRA funding expires in 2011.