Editor’s note: This commentary is by Justin Johnson, secretary of Administration for Gov. Peter Shumlin.
[L]ast week’s announcement that 63 positions will be cut from state government is the first step in a process that will see an estimated 300 fewer positions funded by the end of 2015.
The state general fund budget is approximately $1.4 billion, and of that, payroll makes up $350 million or 25 percent. It should be no surprise that staff is such a large percentage of the cost of government. Government is all about people helping people.
In the past 12 years the annual change in general fund has ranged from a 13.4 percent increase from 2004 to 2005 to a 5.1 percent decrease from 2009 to 2010; over the dozen years we have averaged about a 4 percent year-to-year increase in the general fund. It is a level of growth that is at the upper end of what Vermonters have said they can accept.
Even as we continue to grow out of the recession many Vermont workers and families are finding that their incomes are just not keeping up with their costs. Having to find extra money to cover tax increases is a serious challenge. The governor understands that and it is why we pushed so hard to find more savings in this year’s budget before turning to taxpayers for additional revenue.
Cutting 300 positions in state government is only the first step. Vermonters need to continue to be engaged in the conversation about what services we want – and what we are prepared to pay for. Anyone who followed this year’s budget process in the Legislature knows how hard vested interests will fight to keep their programs. We need to get beyond that conversation as we continue to make the tough decisions about what services the government will and won’t offer. The impending retirement of 300 state workers under the retirement incentive program will help focus this conversation. It will not be a matter of handing their work to others, and refilling more than 75 of those positions is not an option. If we are to make the cost reductions permanent, then we should do what we need to do better, and stop offering some of our less essential services altogether.
It isn’t too much to ask. All successful organizations spend time reviewing their operations and adapting to the changing landscape around them. Vermont state government has been doing this. In the Agency of Natural Resources and the Agency of Human Services we have been using methods borrowed for the business sector to review the way we operate to redesign processes to make them more efficient and effective. This includes being clear on what our goals are, measuring our outcomes and increasing accountability for those outcomes.
There is more work to be done – there always is. I feel an obligation to Vermont taxpayers to make state government operate as efficiently and effectively as it can. The governor shares this view.
The ink isn’t dry on the 2016 budget yet, but we are already working on 2017. The external challenges are many, but they will not be tougher than the internal challenge we have given ourselves to keep costs down, be efficient, be effective, and deliver valuable services to Vermonters in the best way possible.
