POLITICS - Congressional Reluctance and States

"As States Cut Public Workers, Congress Is Reluctant to Act" by Annie Lowrey, Washington Independent (non-profit news) 6/29/10

Excerpt

For tens of thousands of America’s teachers, it is the start of an endless summer. In the past month, the Los Angeles Unified School District has sent pink slips to 693 employees. The Detroit school system has laid off 1,983 teachers, including Michigan’s 2007 teacher of the year. And Greensboro, N.C., has received national attention, as its supervisor has fired or reassigned more than 500 teachers in a district serving just 71,000 students.

In 2010, the Obama administration has estimated, school districts across the country might lay off as many as 300,000 employees, many of them teachers. That would be five times the number of layoffs in 2009, and ten times the number of layoffs in 2008.

These pink-slipped teachers are just the first and most noticeable wave of public-sector employees getting the chop as states slash their budgets. (Schools need to notify teachers that they might be laid off at the end of spring or beginning of summer in order to officially let them go before school comes into session in the fall.) As state and local governments prepare to begin their new fiscal year on July 1, they are frantically cutting not just teachers, but social workers, firefighters and police officers. Oakland, Calif., is firing 80 police officers, more than 10 percent of the current force. New Jersey and New York are bracing for state-wide cuts in governmental offices.

The reason? Last year, the federal government provided stimulus funds for states to make up their yawning budget gaps. (Every state save for Vermont is required to keep a balanced budget.) This year, Congress has declined to step in.

It looks like 2010 might be the annus horribilis for those state budgets, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Even though state tax revenues are starting to rebound a little bit, the absence of the federal assistance from last year and the need to pass the [state Medicaid funding] and education assistance is huge,” Jon Shure, the deputy director of the CBPP’s state fiscal project, explains. “There’s reason to believe this year will be the worst.”