ECOLOGY WMS SALARY REPORT

12/16/08

    This is the Federation Hotline updated Dec. 16.

DON’T PANIC--FIGHT, WFSE/AFSCME PRESIDENT SAYS ON EVE OF GOVERNOR’S BUDGET PLAN RELEASE; MEANWHILE, ECOLOGY MEMBERS RELEASE STUDY CALLING FOR END TO BIG WMS BONUSES AS ‘SENSIBLE SOLUTION’ TO HELP EASE DEFICIT

    The governor releases her budget proposal Thursday (Dec. 18). By law, she must propose a balanced budget. With a potential $5 billion deficit in the 2009-2011 biennium, her budget plan will be brutal. Big cuts will be proposed.

    Federation President Carol Dotlich is urging members, thought to keep an eye on the big picture.

    “When you see that budget, I don’t want you to overreact to it,” Dotlich told members and Spokane-area legislators at Local 1221’s pre-session banquet Dec. 11.

    “I don’t want you to be panicked. I want you to be determined.”

    Dotlich said the governor’s budget is the start, not the end, of the budget process. The Legislature will have the final say.

    But as we told you last week, the Legislature and the governor in the end don’t have to approve a balanced budget. There can be some red ink for the sake of preserving quality services. Some are talking about a ballot measure to raise revenue.

    So when the governor unveils her budget, remember it’s not the final word. Far from it.

    Dotlich urged members to continue submitting “Sensible Solutions” to the budget crisis. And she urged members to write their members of Congress and President-elect Obama to support a federal economic stimulus package to help our state.

    “We’re going to try our best to fill that state budget hole with federal dollars,” she said.

    Go to www.wfse.org to submit “Sensible Solutions” and send a message to Congress and President-elect Obama.

    Other creative ideas are percolating:

• Legislative leaders like Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown support rolling back some of the $53 billion in tax breaks the state gives away each biennium. That’s right, $53 BILLION. That’s right--the state gives up nearly twice as much potential revenue as it spends every two years. Many are good, like the sales tax exemption on food. But many are old, outdated and unfair. Rolling back just 10 percent of those tax breaks, tax loopholes and tax giveaways would cover the deficit.

• And Speaker of the House Frank Chopp said the deficit problem is not that bad. He told a Tri-Cities audience that not spending $2 billion in authorized but unspent funds could take a big slice out of the deficit.

    And, as you can imagine, there are some unwise solutions being proposed as well.

    That’s why Dotlich urged the Spokane audience and all Federation members to push for a federal economic stimulus package and submit “Sensible Solutions.”

    “We can do this together,” she said. “We are 40,000 strong. There isn’t anything we can’t tackle and win.”

    Remember, the solution to the budget crisis and our overall economic recession will be creative ideas to create and keep jobs—including state jobs-and finding the revenue to preserve quality services the people of this state need in these tough times.


MEANWHILE, ECOLOGY MEMBERS COME UP WITH CREATIVE SENSIBLE SOLUTION…

    Members at the Department of Ecology didn’t think hundreds of thousands of dollars being paid out to mid-level managers made sense in a time of growing budget deficits.

    So they filed a public disclosure request on the salaries, bonuses and other special pay given to Washington Management Service managers in their agency from 1999 to 2007.

    The data proved their hunch was right.

    In the eight years between 1999 and 2007, line-level staff received pay raises totaling 27.8 percent, while the total for Washington Management Service employees was 41.9 percent. With compounding, that’s about a 15 percent differential between management and non-management staff.

    The special management pay comes from “growth and development” raises and bonuses, none of which are available to line-level workers. Any pay increases for line-level workers come from what they negotiate with the state through their contract.

    Throughout the agency the amount spent on (growth and development pay) for managers was $492,496 last January. Cash bonuses were also awarded in the amount of $39,346 to specific individuals while the economy was tanking.

    “We believe these management bonuses should be eliminated,” said Greg Devereux, executive director of the Washington Federation of State Employees. “It’s a way to find revenue in these tough times to preserve quality services in Ecology and other agencies.”

    The full Ecology WMS salary report and other data is online at www.wfse.org [specifically http://www.wfse.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_page.cfm&page=ECYsalaries]

    The union will initiate similar analyses in other agencies as a way to trim the budget while minimizing the need for layoffs and other cuts in public services.

    The Washington Management Service was created in 1993 as a separate personnel system within the executive branch of state government. But it grew from about 445 when it started to a high of about 5,300 in 2005. After a cut of 1,000 management positions ordered by Gov. Chris Gregoire in 2005, it’s believed WMS now stands at about 4,000 positions.

    There have been several unsuccessful legislative attempts in recent years to trim the size of the Washington Management Service.

IN MEMORIAM:

    Finally some said news out of Local 1488 at the University of Washington has reached us. Abebach (Abbie) Daniels, a 22-year custodian at the UW, died Nov. 28. The entire Federation family extends our condolences to her family, friends and co-workers.

    That’s it for now. This message will be updated Thursday with details of the governor’s budget proposal.