Governor - Employee staff cuts aren't serious

Governor Corzine has once again proposed what he thinks are draconian cuts and are in reality pedestrian and frankly lack courage. From the NY Times:

Faced with a worsening economy, Gov. Jon S. Corzine is considering reducing the state’s work force by 3,000 employees and closing at least one department in the administration as part of his plan to slash up to $2.5 billion from next year’s budget, people who have been briefed on his plans said on Tuesday.

The issue here is clearly described by the New Jersey Business Industry Association:

Even as private-sector employment growth has slowed over the last six years and nine months, government employment has soared.

Since December 2000, public-sector employment in New Jersey has expanded by a net 53,700 jobs, a 9 percent increase.

So if the Governor is serious, he should be concentrating on reducing state employees in a serious way. The pure fact that he mentions that there will be no layoffs suggests that he really doesn't want to make hard decisions. He should announce publically that the state needs to:

1. Cut state workers by 10 percent from current levels (based on 2007 data, 8000 employees)
2. Establish a series of programs to reduce all NJ non-safety government jobs by at least 10 percent over 3 years (40,000 jobs)
3. Explain to the state how the combination of local, county and state employments has exploded and establish a plan to cut it back.

The Governor cannot continue to pretend that only the state budget is his responsibility. One of the problems is New Jersey is the massive county and local workforce which has no parallel in other states. WHY? As a leader, it is the Governor's job to make this point and lead with solutions to turn it around.

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