Rhode Island Has A Plan To Shrink Budget Gap

Rhode Island is facing a budget shortfall much like Connecticut is. Except that the Governor of Rhode Island has recognized what Connecticut apparently has not. It can shut down for 12 days. Gov. Don Carcieri proposed today that he could shut down, about 81 percent, according to an AP report of the 13,550 state employee jobs for 12 days. Some workers are excluded such as state police, prison guards and child abuse investigators, according to the report.

Union representatives are not too happy with the situation. One, J. Michael Downey of Council 94, suggests that the state’s budget problems should not be taken out on the backs of state employees. Hrmm, so what is the percentage of state employees labor out of the Rhode island budget? A trip to google reveals, Rhode Island has more informational web sites, like this transparency portal. Personnel costs represent about 25% of the budget, with assistance, grants and benefits being the largest slice at 41%. So if 60% of your budget is tied to social services and personnel costs, then where do you think budget cuts should be?

Connecticut faces similar pie slices. But even better, is the reality that the state government could essentially shut down for 30 days, and I don’t think anyone would notice. It’s not like ConnDOT actually does anything productive. Would anyone in Fairfield County notice if they were on furlough for a few months? Likewise DMV could go to three day workweeks for the rest of the year, and maybe the lines would be a tad longer, but hey, they could slow down 16 year olds from taking driving tests and reduce the workload of the state police as a result. The entire state department of education could take the next year off, and likely test scores would improve statewide since less paperwork and mandates would be generated. Judicial system could go down to 4 day workweeks, and all social service agencies could too.

But more importantly, the Governor’s office and the legislative branch could take off the rest of the year, and no one would really notice. They could prepare by reissuing the last 4 months of press releases and executive orders and the state would just teeter along like its been.