Pennsylvania to Lay Off 319 Workers


Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
17 November 2009
By Tracie Mauriello and Don Hopey

HARRISBURG -- Historical sites will be shuttered, the wait for government services will be longer, swimming and camping seasons at state parks will be shorter, and hundreds of state employees will be looking for new jobs.

The governor's office announced yesterday that Friday will be the last day of work for 319 employees who are being laid off. They will be put on administrative leave until Dec. 4, allowing them to collect two additional weeks of pay.

"Today's news is grim but we are grateful the number [of layoffs] isn't any greater than it is," Secretary of Administration Naomi Wyatt said yesterday.

The layoffs were required to meet spending reductions called for in the $27.8 billion state budget that passed last month after a summer of contentious negotiations, Ms. Wyatt said.

She said many of the staff reductions are expected to be permanent, but if the economy improves some cuts could be restored.

"Hopefully if the economy turns upward, we're hoping to bring back services at state parks and open up historical sites again," she said.

The state Department of Environmental Protection, which had its general fund budget cut by almost $56.6 million, or 27 percent, will lay off 138 employees or 5 percent of its work force. The department also will eliminate another 120 vacant positions, according to DEP Secretary John Hanger.

It's the largest number of layoffs in any state department.

"We're losing about 8 percent of our overall staffing due to the budget reductions, but we've made enforcement and oversight a priority so it will not affect our ability to do that work," Mr. Hanger said.

None of the cuts will come in the department's oil and gas program, where the state recently raised fees to pay for 37 new hires to do permitting and inspection work on hundreds of new wells tapping into the Marcellus shale, a deep rock formation underlying three-fourths of the state and attracting widespread drilling interest.

State Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware, said the DEP layoffs could have been avoided had the Rendell administration backed a severance tax on Marcellus drilling as part of the state budget.

"The revenue the state could have raised with a severance tax or fee -- which ever other major natural-gas drilling state already has -- could have gone a long way to supporting DEP's staff and mission," he said.

The state Historical and Museum Commission, meanwhile, will furlough 85 people, or a third of its employees.

The other layoffs are spread across several departments and offices including Agriculture, Public Welfare and Military and Veterans Affairs.

No parks state parks will close, but several historical sites will be shuttered temporarily because there will be no employees to staff them and give tours. They include Old Economy Village in Ambridge.

Other agencies will reduce operating hours. For example, the State Museum and State Archives in Harrisburg both will close on Mondays and Tuesdays; and the Drake Well Museum in Venango County will close for the winter.

The announcement brings to 769 the total number of executive-branch employees who have been laid off since January. That doesn't include job losses departments outside the governor's jurisdiction, such as Treasury, which furloughed 60 over the summer.

Twelve of the 319 being furloughed work in state offices in Allegheny County and another 28 work in surrounding areas.

The layoffs will save the state $16.7 million over the next 12 months, Ms. Wyatt said.

One union official says the overall savings could be negligible.

"The state's unemployment compensation is self-insured and that's two-thirds of employees' pay. That itself shows that cutting personnel isn't really a big savings," said David Fillman, executive director of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 13.