Rather than lay off state employees to meet budget cuts ordered by the Legislature, some agency supervisors have taken it upon themselves to distribute brass parachutes, retirement packages paid for with millions of taxpayer dollars.
In the sourdough pretzel logic of government so aptly expressed in a story by the Austin American-Statesman this morning, sometimes you have to spend money to save money.
The story questions the “have to” part of the equation, saying agency officials were given wide berth in how they went about cutting 5,700 positions as part of $15 billion in cuts for the 2012-13 budget.
As Texas Watchdog has reported some didn’t actually get rid of any real employees at all, but announced they were shedding vacant positions.
While under no obligation, the General Land Office bosses have run up a bill of $1.3 million handing out $25,000 to eligible employees who volunteered to retire.
The Department of Agriculture’s $12,500 retirement incentive cost $637,500, but will save the agency $2.5 million a year, the story says. The nine Texas Water Development Board employees awarded $10,000 retirement packages will save the state $556,000 a year.
There is precedent for these government buyouts, the story says. The Legislature in 2003 thought it could save some serious cash and so offered every eligible state worker a package equal to 25 percent of their current salary as an incentive to retire.
That started a run of about 7,000 retirements. Many of those workers came out of retirement and back to their old jobs when the budget crisis passed.
Sometimes you have to spend money to be able to spend more money later.
The story questions the “have to” part of the equation, saying agency officials were given wide berth in how they went about cutting 5,700 positions as part of $15 billion in cuts for the 2012-13 budget.
As Texas Watchdog has reported some didn’t actually get rid of any real employees at all, but announced they were shedding vacant positions.
While under no obligation, the General Land Office bosses have run up a bill of $1.3 million handing out $25,000 to eligible employees who volunteered to retire.
The Department of Agriculture’s $12,500 retirement incentive cost $637,500, but will save the agency $2.5 million a year, the story says. The nine Texas Water Development Board employees awarded $10,000 retirement packages will save the state $556,000 a year.
There is precedent for these government buyouts, the story says. The Legislature in 2003 thought it could save some serious cash and so offered every eligible state worker a package equal to 25 percent of their current salary as an incentive to retire.
That started a run of about 7,000 retirements. Many of those workers came out of retirement and back to their old jobs when the budget crisis passed.
Sometimes you have to spend money to be able to spend more money later.
***
Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org or on Twitter at @marktxwatchdog.
Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog. Fan our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Scribd, and fan us on YouTube. Join our network on de.licio.us, and put our RSS feeds in your newsreader. We're also on MySpace, Digg, FriendFeed, and tumblr.
Photo of Texas state Capitol by flickr user Matt Rife, used via a Creative Commons license.
Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org or on Twitter at @marktxwatchdog.
Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog. Fan our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Scribd, and fan us on YouTube. Join our network on de.licio.us, and put our RSS feeds in your newsreader. We're also on MySpace, Digg, FriendFeed, and tumblr.
Photo of Texas state Capitol by flickr user Matt Rife, used via a Creative Commons license.
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