The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
State public sector workers have job security — for now
As many private sector employees across Connecticut have found themselves furloughed, laid off or otherwise out of work amid the coronavirus pandemic, many public sector employees in Connecticut have remained on municipal payrolls during the crisis.
“I’ve heard from a handful of towns that they have decided to move forward with some furloughs,” said Betsy Gara, who heads the Connecticut Council of Small Towns. “But most have indicated they already have limited staff and had not filled positions or reduced hours prior to the pandemic.”
How long that job security trend lasts is a big question given the expectation that financial hardships caused by the response to the coronavirus pandemic will catch up with government budgets later this year — through unpaid property taxes, fewer state grants and other monetary losses.
“For local governments, the revenue, frankly, hasn’t dried up yet,” said Brian Kench, dean of the University of New Haven’s business college. “It will.”
Kench said unlike businesses and nonprofits that had to make payroll cuts because of immediate losses in cash flow — including restaurants, bars, stores and salons forced to close to help stop the virus’ spread — “local budgets in Con
necticut have a tendency to be dependent on property taxes.” So municipalities, which ordered most employees work from home starting in March, still are functioning off tax revenue received in January and last July when the economy was good.
But government leaders know the worst is coming. A recent survey produced by the National League of Cities and the United States Conference of Mayors concluded that the health emergency will have “a staggering impact on all municipal employment.”
And on Friday, Gov. Ned Lamont said he would seek some unspecified savings from state employee unions .
Municipal leaders around the area, many of whom are crafting 2020-21 budgets, currently aren’t considering shedding personnel, but some did not rule out the eventual possibility.
“It’s not something we’re looking at right now,” said Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, a Republican. “I would certainly leave the door open in the future. It depends on how bad things get.”
Lamont provided the public education sector reassurance in early April when he ordered that all of them — from teachers to secretaries — continue being paid even though schools were shut down and students learning from home.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said he and his big city colleagues frequently discuss how COVID-19 will impact their finances: “I think all of us are struggling with how to estimate the economic impact of this.”
Elicker said “we’ve talked about” furloughs and/or layoffs, “but I am very reluctant to go that route.” He instead has sought to eliminate approximately 80 vacancies.
Elicker argued his administration has encouraged private employers to use their best efforts to maintain personnel “to get through this gap of significant unemployment in the community.”
“I can’t ask businesses to do that if we’re not doing that ourselves,” he said.
Another urban Democrat — Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim — in late March suggested he was weighing staff reductions, but in a recent online address to employees said, “At this point we don’t have any plans for direct layoffs or (unpaid) furloughs.”
Ganim, however, like Lamont, said he would like to talk to unions — some of which have relatively new contracts with guaranteed annual raises — about unspecified cost-saving efforts.
Stamford Mayor David Martin said Friday all 12 of his city’s unions have been asked to enter into discussions “to negotiate how we will respond to the financial situation in Stamford.” Martin, a Democrat, declined further comment on those private negotiations.
Fred Camillo, Greenwich’s Republican first selectman, said, “We’re not at the point of furloughing or reducing headcount.”
The town’s finance board last week instead approved across-the-board cuts to infrastructure projects and every department’s operating budget. That included a $3 million reduction to the school budget that has been very unpopular with parents.
At a recent budget hearing, Laura Gladstone, a member of Greenwich’s Representative Town Meeting, urged officials to think “very seriously” about furloughs and pay cuts “across the board.”
“Some of my friends have had 20 or 50 percent pay cuts,” Gladstone said. “I think it would be a good sign for the town to show we are all in this together. There are many, many, many people suffering.”
Some municipalities are doing that. Fairfield laid off 118 permanent, part-time employees including library staff, crossing guards and nurses after closing government buildings. And Trumbull, run by First Selectman Vicki Tesoro, a Democrat, and Derby, where Republican Richard Dziekan is mayor, also have laid off30 and six part-time workers, respectively.
“Unfortunately, in these difficult times, we need to make difficult decisions,” Tesoro previously said. “Laying people off was the last thing I wanted to do, but for the town it is the financially prudent decision because they can’t work to deliver town services.”
Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling’s office said he instead has tried to “reassign certain staff members who cannot work from home and can fill other needs that have emerged during the COVID-19 public health crisis.” Still, Rilling, a Democrat, was “keeping a close eye on the situation and continually reviewing and considering all available options as there are still many unknowns.”
Republican Mayor Elinor Carbone of Torrington “does not plan on” shedding employees but was “paying close attention to the parttime, seasonal positions” given the pandemic’s potential effect on summer recreational programs.
Larry Dorman, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 14,000 municipal workers across Connecticut, said, “I would describe the situation across the state as ‘cooperative.’”
“We’ve been able to reach understandings with employers to maintain staff to provide vital services and to avoid laying off workers or punitive concessions,” he said.
Still, Dorman acknowledged AFSCME was “absolutely keeping an eye” on the upcoming months and next spring’s budget season. He warned against “pitting public against private sector” working families in an economic downturn.
“We have to be mindful of the fact we can’t fight this pandemic or reopen the Connecticut economy without strong public services and public service workers to provide those critical services,” Dorman said. “I’d also say whether it’s the state or municipalities, we are seeing lean operations everywhere. There’s not a lot of fat to trim.”
Elicker and Boughton said slashing government payrolls is easier said than done because of the consequences.
“If you talk with any New Haven resident, even though they may say New Haven’s budget could be even leaner, they will also complain that ... we’re not able to provide all the services they’d like,” Elicker said. “So there’s a lot of tension there.”
Boughton, a three-time GOP gubernatorial candidate, warned that in Danbury “if we engaged in layoffs, I think in some cases it would jeopardize public safety.”
The University of New Haven’s Kench said if the decision comes to layoffs versus furloughs, the latter would be the lesser of two evils if employers provide health coverage, with the hopeful eventual return to work.
“When a job is lost there are enormous negative consequences for the individual, the family and for the state,” Kench said. “In an ideal world, every job should be saved. But you’re in the realm of horrific choices, so you’re trying to pick the least horrific.”