Oh, the Pain, the Pain! Fifty State Employees (out of 119,000) Might Get Laid Off!

The Kaine administration may have to lay off state employees to help close an anticipated $640 million revenue shortfall. The total number of jobs to be eliminated could number “several hundred,” according to the Washington Post. But Gov. Timothy M. Kaine hopes to accomplish most of the reductions through attrition and retirement. The number of lay-offs could be “fewer than 50,” according to the Times-Dispatch.

Finding 50 employees to lay off shouldn’t be too difficult in a workforce that numbered nearly 119,000 in June. That’s up 8,300 since Kaine took office in January 2006.

In fairness to Gov. Kaine, 85 percent of that increase can be accounted for by a hiring spree at Virginia’s institutions of higher education, which operate with considerable autonomy, not at state agencies under the governor’s direct control. When you deduct higher ed from the state employee count, however, the number of employees still has increased more than 1,140. On the other hand, the Virginia Information Technologies Agency shows a 647-person reduction in employee count, which, I presume, reflects the outsourcing of jobs to Northrup Grumman. The jobs are still there, they’re just accounted for differently. So, a fair number would be closer to 1,800.

The much-maligned Virginia Department of Transportation has been the productivity star of the Kaine administration, reducing its head count by 512. Big gainers have been the Indigent Defense Commission, the Department of Health, the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the Virginia Port Authority — the last two of which are business entities.

Question One: Where are the promised productivity benefits from handing over IT functions to the much-touted VITA? From the rumblings I’ve heard in the trenches, VITA has increased agency overhead costs without adding much value.