There has been an onslaught of rumors, speculation, and misinformation regarding State Employees, lately so we will try to address these issues as best as we can.
Meeting with the Governor: It is inevitable. It would be silly for the Governor to avoid talking to the Unions throughout the entire legislative session. His budget plan is to have State Employees make up for the deficit through layoffs and harsh contract agreements. He knows there are limitations on what the Unions are willing to discuss, but doesn't it just make sense to engage the Unions before he spirals the middle-class down the drain?
Layoffs: Clearly layoff notices are looming. Several agencies have been quite open about the request to provide budget reduction plans to the Governor's Office. Many agencies will need to implement layoffs to meet the dollar reductions requested by the Governor. The Governor had originally requested 5.75% reductions and may need more depending on how the revenue reports look on April 30th. There has been quite a bit of speculation as to when layoff notices will go out, but no date has yet been officially determined (the Governor did use the date of June 9th, but even that is not official).
Furloughs: The Republicans are floating the idea of 2 furlough days prior to June 30, 2016. The timing of these 2 furlough days potentially may help the FY16 budget, but they won't address the FY17 projected budget shortfall. Furloughs would require agreement from the unions (otherwise it would be considered an illegal lockout). Since there have been no discussions with the Unions, this is simply part of the press release wars between the Republicans, Democrats, and the Governor.
Pension Funding Changes: There will be a discussion on pension funding in the near future. This is NOT pension benefit changes, this is a discussion on how best to fund the pension. SEBAC does have a “pension committee” that will meet with the Governor and discuss the pension funding ideas. There was a plan announced by the Governor to separate Tier 1 from Tiers 2/2A/3 (this appears to have little support and is essentially scuttled) and there is also a plan that Comptroller Lembo and Treasurer Nappier have put forth. The Lembo/Nappier funding plan appears much more stable than the Governor's current funding plan. The Governor’s plan has escalating payments reaching $13 billion dollars in year 2032 (his "fiscal cliff") while the Lembo/Nappier plan has level payments through 2045.
Pension/Healthcare concessions: this is the most contentious arena and the area with the most speculation because there are endless possibilities. The obvious rumors center around increasing doctor co-pays, increasing drug co-pays and raising pension contributions by 2% for all employees. These are all ideas that have been floated in the press recently and all certainly help the State. There are also rumors about capping an employee’s pension at 70% of salary (very difficult for Tier2/2A/3 employees to reach that threshold), talk of putting a cap on the maximum dollar value of a pension, removing ovretime entirely from the pension calculation or just removing voluntary overtime from the calculation...Again, these are not real discussions since the Governor has not asked to meet with the Unions. None of this has been discussed! As far as we know, the Governor expects the Legislature to pass a budget with 5.75% across-the-board reductions in spending and agencies will need to take necessary actions to accomplish this.
We will get through all of this together. It may get a bit sticky, but know that your union officers are State Employees also and that we are nowhere near retirement age. We are not looking to get the best deal for ourselves and dive into retirement - we are here with you as fellow employees for quite some time. We and our families have to live with the outcome - same as everyone. We have no intention of taking a bad deal. If any deal is to be achieved, it will need to be satisfactory to the membership.