Perdue Just Can't Win
It ain’t easy being Governor Perdue. A Public Policy Poll released this week shows that 51 percent of those surveyed don’t approve of the job she is doing as Governor. The most disappointing news to Perdue is that Democrats have turned on her. Only one out of two Democrats think she is doing a good job. Just 29 percent of teachers and 36 percent of other state employees think she’s doing a good job.
They are not at all happy about the one-half of one percent pay cut she gave them in the form of a furlough.
What is so curious about this result is that Governor Perdue did the least she could have possibly have done to make the state budget balance. She could have (and many believe should have) done much more. These state workers all kept their jobs instead of being fired. They kept their hospitalization insurance and retirement benefits. Theirs was a minor individual sacrifice for the benefit of all. But they obviously don’t see it that way and turned on Perdue big time. One has to wonder just how much worse she would have polled had she had cut them 5 or 10 percent or, worse yet, ordered all state agencies to fire a certain percentage of their employees?
There are thousands in our state who would gladly trade places with these unhappy state employees because they don’t have jobs.
Face it, government is a service business and the largest single expense is payroll. It is highly likely that the legislature is going to be far harder on state employees than did Perdue. By the time the new budget is passed they may come to understand Perdue has been their real friend, not the enemy.
It isn’t so curious is that 60 percent of independent voters gave Perdue an unfavorable rating. Despite her frequent admonitions that she’s a big girl and can make tough decisions we suspect many don’t believe she has been bold enough, either in dealing with the deficits in the current budget or in her proposed budget for next year.
But the one lesson the Governor should take away from this all is that governing in recessions isn’t easy, so you just have to do what is right and best for everyone in your state and let the chips fall where they may. Forget about popularity contests. There are times in which you just cannot win. Governor Perdue is in that situation now.
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Tags: Governor politics North Carolina
While it is true that compared to a lot of private sector companies, state workers got off easy...so far, you need to remember something. There have been many years in recent memory when state workers saw no salary increase at all (although teachers usually did) and when there was an increase, it was 1.5% or less. There have been some sizable raises, but they were few and far between.
So, when you hear state workers whining about .5% pay cut, keep in mind that they aren't enjoying annual increases like some folks. When your salary stays the same, or only increases minimally over a 10-year span, it hurts a lot to see your pay get cut, even if it's only by .5%.
I grant you things will probably get much worse in the coming months for state employees, but I'm not too concerned about Ms. Perdue. She will come out just fine.
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Right on! I am a retired state employee. I am not complaining about no COLA this year. Gov. Bev should have given all state employees a 10 percent paycut this year. They would hate her for a year. Then next year she could give them a 5 percent pay increase. Then she is loved for a year. After that, maybe we will be out of this mess. But she will still be loved by all!
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I'm a state employee with almost 21 years of service, and I recall full well how many years I've gotten a COLA that amounted to less than the insurance rate hikes, etc. Taking a net loss most years is not fun, but that's how it it. I also do not mind so much about the 1/2 percent pay cut, or even possibly up to a (*temporary, 1 year*) 5 percent pay reduction, as long as it is spread over 12 monthly checks and not a nasty little last minute surprise taken out of 1 or 2 checks. I do think state employees in the lower end of the pay scale (under $40k, let's be real here) ought to bear less of the burden than the highly paid management types at the highest end of the pay scale. The bottom line is that while it's really easy to automatically start screaming "cut state employee jobs", but that will do several very detrimental things:
1) Services that taxpayers expect will not be able to be provided at the levels desired, or at all, in a lot of cases.
2) Those fired state employees won't be able to pay their bills, keep health insurance, their houses will go into foreclosure, and will just add to the real estate mess. They's be sleeping under the bridge with the winos sooner or later, because without a job, they won't be able to rent an apartment.
3) they will be getting unemployement payments from the government because there are not enough jobs to go around. This will just increase the deficit.
So, all you a*holes out there calling for the mass firing of state workers need to think about whether you'd rather be paying the slightly less and keeping them in a job, in their home, and with some money to pay bills and, oh by the way, taxes. Yes, we are tax payers too, although most of you a*holes act as if we aren't even human. I put in over 50 hours a week (have been for years) and only get paid for 40, and don't get to take my comp time either because we're already so understaffed. What do you think it's going to be like once you start cutting more jobs? Do you want to see state gov go into complete gridlock because of of lack of staff resources? We're pretty darn close to that in a lot of business units already!
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Just another talking head wanting to heap on state employees. The Governor could have atleast let us know what she was going to have to do instead of announcing it to the news media first. Hopefully, the next round (which WILL be much worse) she can have a heart and let us know what's coming before calling a press conference. Her efforts were obviously rushed and uncaring. She confused everyone and had to ammend her first executive order. Makes me wonder what her real intentions were.
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I think she could win, but I am not sure that she has enough experience. What is she going to do about the loss of construction jobs?
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