Since lawmakers imposed unpaid furloughs on state workers as a budget saving measure, overtime and compensatory time spiked in more than two dozen agencies, according to an analysis by the Reno Gazette-Journal.
In the six months since the furloughs were imposed in July, some agencies have doubled, even quadrupled, their overtime compared to the previous six months.
The overtime cost has caused many lawmakers to question whether the furlough program is saving as much as intended, as they face a $880 million shortfall in the current budget.
“It’s a problem,” Assemblyman Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, said. “There are people with furloughs, people with a pay cut and some who have done neither and they’re all sitting in the same office. We know it and we intend to address it.”
State officials said overtime varies based on workload and seasons and the increase can’t be attributed only to furloughs. All but seven of the agencies had a decrease in overtime compared with the first two quarters of fiscal year 2009. And total overtime is down about 4 percent.
But so many complaints have erupted about the difficulties of furloughs that lawmakers will likely consider reforming the program when they meet later this month in a special session to address a the budget crisis.
“What we’ve been hearing from state employees in some agencies is that there is a trend of people replacing their furlough hours with overtime,” Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said. “That needs to be stopped.”
Faced with a $3 billion shortfall last year, lawmakers imposed a 12-day unpaid furlough for each year of the biennium, tio save $194 million.
Some agencies get exemptions
Under the law, workers aren’t allowed overtime in the same pay period as a furlough. But more than 3,700 positions have been granted exemptions to that rule.
Some agencies received exemptions from furloughs for large swaths of their workers for public safety concerns: corrections officers, firefighters and unemployment and disability claim-takers.
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“We decided when we imposed furloughs it would be fair to have everyone do it,” Leslie said. “There are people who aren’t sharing in that sacrifice.”
Employees complain furloughs have been unfairly implemented. Managers complain about the administrative nightmare.
“Furloughs seem to have been a disaster,” Higher Education Chancellor Dan Klaich told lawmakers last week. “They are an enormous management problem.”
Not all higher education employees are subject to furloughs and scheduling is a problem, he said.
Lawmakers reconsidering
Gov. Jim Gibbons is expected to call a special session later this month or in early March to address the budget shortfall. Legislative leaders said they’ll likely consider a bill to ensure the furloughs are more fairly implemented.
“If you can’t take a furlough, you have to take a pay cut,” Leslie said.
“It’s a problem,” Goicoechea said. “We will fix that. I promise.”
Not everyone is a fan of replacing furloughs with a pay cut. Assemblyman Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas, said furloughs save the state money while preserving state worker salary levels in the future.
“A salary cut is permanent,” he said. “Furloughs don’t penalize people in the long run.”
Secretary of State Ross Miller’s office posted the largest increase in overtime payments since furloughs were imposed, 429 percent compared to the two quarters before furloughs, according to the RGJ analysis.
His office took over the state business licensing function from the Department of Taxation this year and Miller is down 21 positions. That, coupled with the furloughs, has caused processing times to spike to unacceptable levels, he said.
“I had to authorize overtime in order to get control of the processing times,” he said. “The delays were jeopardizing a significant revenue stream for the state.”
The commercial recordings processed by his office are expected to generate $125 million for the state.
Miller said he’ll pay for it by saving money with vacant positions and possibly using a reserve account.
Controller Kim Wallin’s office had a nearly 400 percent increase in overtime. She said her office routinely experiences overtime in the second quarter because of the financial reporting that’s required. Her accountants will take furloughs during the second half of the year.
The Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation has significant overtime costs to keep up with a the deluge of unemployment and disability claims.
The department uses federal funds to pay salaries for claim-takers, so the $1.5 million overtime expense isn’t a burden on the state’s general fund, administrator Cindy Jones said.
“The overtime worked resulted in approximately $2.5 billion in benefits being placed in the hands of the unemployed since July of 2008,” Jones wrote in an e-mail response to questions posed by the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Andrew Clinger, Gibbons’ budget director, said his department is tracking overtime and that agencies with overtime still must achieve the savings expected from the furloughs.
“They still have to live within the legislatively approved budget,” Clinger said.
But he said morale has taken a hit because of the inequities in how the furloughs are being implemented.
“Employees feel they are doing their part but they see another employee who is not taking the equivalent hit,” he said. “That is a concern.”
