Testimony of Ken Brynien, President
The New York State Public Employees Federation
To The
Assembly Ways and Means and
Senate Finance Committees
Workforce Hearing
February 26, 2007
Chairmen Farrell and Johnson, Senators, Assembly members.
My name is Ken Brynien, I am President of the New York State Public Employees Federation representing 56,000 scientific, professional and technical employees of New York State’s public workforce.
Thank you for allowing me to testify today on workforce issues.
This budget – while not perfect – is a good budget for the state workforce and a good budget for state taxpayers.
With your help, the Governor has taken an excellent first step in opening up the budget process to the people who pay the bills in this state – the taxpayers.
Our State budget should be based on fairness, openness and accountability. These are essential nutrients of a healthy democratic government.
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First, let me talk about what we find positive in this budget proposal.
This budget reveals a new appreciation for openness.
For the first time, the Executive Budget spells out how much is being spent annually by the state on private consultants, detailing the State’s use of outside consulting services by each State agency. This is a result of a bill that the Legislature passed last year, and we thank you for that.
The books are finally open -- and we can see the opportunities to save money.
State agencies employed 7,546 employees under consultant contracts in 2006-07 at an estimated cost of $910.9 million or an average annual cost of $120,718 per consultant contract employee.
Our chart here shows a “dirty dozen” – actually a baker’s dozen – of state agencies that spend on average more than a quarter million dollars a year – per contract employee.
Top on the list is the Department of Agriculture and Markets which is paying its contractors an average of more than a half million dollars a year per employee.
This budget is headed in the right direction by seeking to employ fewer consultants.
PEF supports the governor’s proposal to save the taxpayers millions of dollars by reducing the use of costly consultants and instead using qualified State employees.
It is estimated that the number of employees employed under consultant contracts will decrease to 7,278 employees in 2007-08, a decrease of 268 contract employees, or 3.5 percent. We support this cost-saving initiative.
Another critical reform that the state should take is to pass legislation that would require a cost-benefit analysis before contracting out.
New York receives no benefit by overpaying for consultant services that cost much more than doing the work in-house. The Legislature passed a cost/benefit bill last year but it was vetoed. We urge you to pass it again this year.
We also support many of the Governor’s program initiatives. The Governor proposes to improve the effectiveness of State agencies by adding staff in key functions including environmental protection, transportation engineering, tax auditing, education, youth services, Medicaid auditing, and other essential services.
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While there are many positive aspects of this Executive Budget, it can be made even more FAIR in certain ways.
One major issue of fairness involves the governor’s proposal to close the Great Valley youth facility in Cattaraugus County, as well as, three Office of Children and Family Services group homes in Gloversville, Mount Vernon, and Brooklyn.
PEF is opposed to these proposed closures.
The Legislature must keep the law requiring at least 12 months notice before closing a facility -- and it should require OCFS to develop a plan for its youth facilities before considering any changes in those facilities.
Youth enter OCFS facilities with serious service needs that are not currently met by OCFS because of staffing shortages. Nine out of ten youths entering OCFS facilities in 2005 had at least one special service need, and two out of three had up to eight needs for special services. Four out of five currently in OCFS custody have a substance abuse problem; more than half have a mental health needs, and nearly half have some medical problem.
As service needs of OCFS youth have risen, OCFS staffing has shrunk. There are 60 fewer teachers, 64 fewer youth counselors, 11 fewer nurses and 16 fewer vocational instructors in OCFS now than just five years ago. Teacher/student ratios and caseloads for counselors are significantly higher than they were twelve years ago and are too large to effectively rehabilitate the youth in these facilities.
At Great Valley in particular, the closing of this facility would reduce the number of residential slots in Western New York by 50 percent. How can OCFS possibly provide adequate services to the city of Buffalo and the surrounding counties with this reduction?
We owe it to our troubled youth to ensure that any change in facilities is done for the benefit of those children – and not for the benefit of a balance sheet.
If any reductions are made in youth facilities then the legislature and the governor should add funding, or use some of the $4 million in this budget allocated for additional personnel, to reduce teacher and counselor caseloads.
We understand that change occurs and indeed we welcome change, but the state should be fostering careful, constructive change – not something that is done in an abrupt fashion that dislocates residents and employees of these facilities.
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Let’s face it -- this great state was built on accountability. It was Theodore Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland – two great New Yorkers – who helped create the idea of an accountable public workforce rooted in a strong civil service system.
The budget reduces 30 staff positions in the Department of Civil Service. This will impair the department’s ability to perform important functions of a fair, efficient, merit-based civil service system.
If this cut is implemented, the Department of Civil Service workforce will have been reduced by 201 employees -- or 27 percent -- over the last thirteen years. It is difficult enough for this department to complete its mission, given its current staffing; further cuts will make the task that much harder.
We ask that $1.4 million be added to the D-C-S appropriation to restore 30 positions and insure a strong merit system.
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The public has demanded accountability from its elected officials. Two proposals in this budget run contrary to that principle – The creation of the Commission on Prison Capacity and the creation of a new public benefit corporation to administer the proposed Stem Cell and Innovation Fund.
The Commission on Prison Capacity would recommend the closing or downsizing of correctional facilities. This commission is modeled on the secretive Berger commission and its recommendations would become law unless rejected by a vote of both houses of the legislature.
We think this is a bad idea because the proposed Commission would be unaccountable to the public.
If restructuring of DOCS operations is needed, a plan should be submitted to the Legislature by the Governor, and decisions made in the open by a democratic process, not by an unaccountable Commission.
PEF does not object to an advisory committee to study prison capacity and make non-binding recommendations, but no commission should be given the authority to circumvent the legislative process.
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The Stem Cell and Innovation Fund as proposed would lead to the creation of another unaccountable public-benefit corporation.
The Governor proposes a bond act to raise $1.5 billion to fund research in stem cell biology, life sciences and other new technologies, and the funds would be administered by a public benefit corporation. PEF supports the proposed funding for research and development, but we oppose the creation of any more public benefit corporations or public authorities.
This bond act would be submitted to the voters, and therefore could just as easily be administered by public agencies such as the Department of Health or Department of Economic Development.
There are already more than 700 unaccountable shadow agencies in New York. They are a major cause of waste, inefficiency and corruption.
Public benefit corporations undermine democracy by making government less accountable and less transparent.
Openness is required by a democracy, and it is our preference that this budget build openness into all of its new initiatives.
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We also have some concerns about the proposed Pollution Prevention Institute that would be funded out of the Environmental Protection Fund. We believe the Institute should not be able to carry out responsibilities, services and work already carried out by DEC employees or that they have provided in the past.
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Finally, I want to mention something that is indirectly related to the support of state services.
It is the issue of how we pay for government and the public services New Yorkers need and rely on.
PEF supports the Governor’s proposal to close certain tax loopholes.
Closing those loopholes would raise about $450 million in revenues to support important State services and make the tax system fairer.
PEF has found that at least a dozen major corporations – some of the richest businesses in the world including IBM, J P Morgan Chase, AT&T, and General Electric– play little, if any, in the way of taxes to the state.
There is no excuse for not requiring that corporations pay their fair share of the infrastructure that they use in this state.
It is time for corporations doing business in New York to be good corporate citizens and pay their fair share – as every other New Yorker is expected to do.
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Overall, PEF believes that our new governor has done a good job of beginning the process of creating budgets that are fairer, more open and more accountable.
We believe the governor, the legislature and our members all share the goals of fairness, openness and accountability.
We stand ready to work together toward those goals.
Again, thank you for your time.