Saying union leaders left him no other choice, Gov. George Ryan began the process Monday of laying off employees at dozens of prisons around Illinois in what he said was a necessary step in addressing the state’s budget shortfall.
About 120 employees who supervise inmates during leisure periods will be the first to get layoff slips, which started going out Monday and will become effective as early as April.
Ryan also ordered the permanent layoff of almost 900 other employees at prisons, Department of Human Services facilities and other state agencies, bringing to 1,000 the number of those likely to be out of a job this spring.
“I have always said that layoffs are the final option in balancing the budget,” Ryan said in a statement issued late Monday afternoon. “We’ve been stymied in what we’ve tried to do to prevent layoffs.”
Union leaders say Ryan is unfairly trying to balance the budget at the expense of state workers, without making a serious effort to come up with better solutions.
The governor’s actions follow a monthslong showdown with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, in which the union has refused to reopen its current contract and renegotiate terms as the state casts around for ways to cut costs.
Ryan also wants the state employees to take a one-day unpaid furlough and allow the privatization of food services in some of the state’s maximum-security prisons. The union has gone to court to stop those measures and won temporary stays in both cases.
Administration officials say the governor’s three requests could save the state as much as $128 million during the current fiscal year alone, thereby helping to avert a massive budget crisis caused by a nationwide economic downturn and a dramatic drop in state revenues. For weeks now, Ryan has been trying to get the union to go along with the proposals by threatening to lay off hundreds of employees.
But even if the union did go along with some or all of the changes, administration officials say, the state will still have to lay off employees in the new fiscal year that begins in July. Ryan has outlined a budget plan that could mean the elimination of some 3,600 jobs, and possibly even more, at facilities for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled and other agency offices.
Knowing those layoffs are on the horizon, union officials have taken a hard line.
“This is unfortunate, but it’s not unexpected,” said Ryan spokesman Dennis Culloton. “Ten days ago we said we’d give them another 10 days to come to the table. So we’re doing what we need to do to cut back on spending.”
Union leaders said that is not the case. For one thing, Ryan should wait until legislative leaders have weighed in on his budget proposal before he starts knocking people off the payroll, they said.
“There’s no reason to be putting employees on the street now, before the legislature has had the opportunity to act on that proposal,” said Roberta Lynch, deputy director of the union. “It’s just part of his really heartless attempt to try to intimidate our union and our members.”
Ryan should also try to get the legislature to raise revenues through new or increased taxes or fees instead of cutting jobs and eliminating state services, said Lynch.
“He could try to pass revenue measures” through the General Assembly, she said. “He has been knocking himself out to get a new runway at O’Hare. Yet you do not see him lifting one finger, saying one word, talking to one legislator to try to raise revenues needed to prevent not just these layoffs but the draconian service cuts.”
Not all of the jobs to be eliminated have been identified, said administration officials. The largest agencies, most notably the Departments of Corrections and Human Services, will take most of the cuts.
Directors of other agencies are also being asked to identify jobs for elimination this spring, they said.
“Prisons and DHS facilities around the state will suffer the brunt,” said Culloton. “Some others will pare back. But the vast majority of state employees will come from the two of them.”
