Small State Payroll Sought

Governor would use attrition, retirement; wants transfer power

The Charleston Gazette, August 3, 2005

Gov. Joe Manchin wants to trim the number of state workers, and he plans to ask the Legislature to change the law to make that easier. Manchin would eliminate jobs mostly as state employees retire or leave, not through lay-offs, he told Charleston Gazette editors this week. “We’re going agency by agency. We’re doing it through attrition,” he said. “You’re not cutting, you’re making it more efficient.”

Manchin wants to be able to transfer employees from one department to another — for example, from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Health and Human Resources. Right now, employees can be transferred within a department, but they can’t be forced to move between them.

Manchin spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg said state workers should not fear being transferred to a lesser job. She said transfers would be rare. “We’re looking at changing the state code so we can have more flexibility, so if we see a need in one area, and a qualified person in another, we can fill the gap,” Ramsburg said.

Also, Manchin plans to eliminate hundreds of “ghost workers” — empty positions in state government that are never filled. Agency heads take the money intended for those jobs and use it for other things. Manchin said it will be difficult to pry the money from agency heads, but he is determined to do so. “You talk about fighting a mindset. They get wind of that and they’re pulling the money back,” he said.

No one knows exactly how much money is set aside for ghost workers, but it is likely in the tens of millions of dollars. A lot of that money is used to hire temporary or part-time workers, said Senior Deputy State Auditor Ross Guyer. That can actually save the state money. “I doubt he’s going to find a windfall here,” Guyer said. “That money’s being used for something else.”

If agency heads need “ghost worker” money for other things, they should ask for it directly, Ramsburg said.

Manchin wants the Legislature to consider changing the laws regarding personnel in a special session planned for September, along with proposed pay raises for state employees.

In 2003, West Virginia ranked 45th in state employee salaries, according to Governing Magazine, at $34,919. In surrounding states, average state worker salaries were $3,000 to $14,000 higher.

The state ranked 47th in total per capita income last year, according to the U.S. Census.

Manchin is not the first governor to promise to cut the number of state employees. Former Republican Gov. Cecil Underwood pledged, “Better government, not bigger government” when he came into office in early 1997.

However, the number of full-time equivalent state employees increased by almost 10 percent between March 1997 and March 2001, according to the Census Bureau.

Under Underwood’s successor, Bob Wise, the number of state employees continued to grow, but at a slower pace, from about 33,700 full-time employees in 2001 to about 34,900 in 2005, according to the state Auditor’s Office.

Almost all the increase can be attributed to the state’s new regional jail system, which replaced the old county jails. Were it not for the new correctional officers, the number of full-time state employees actually would have decreased by more than 500.