Sun editorial:

A giant step backward

State employee furloughs will produce longer lines and poorer service

Friday, June 12, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

Nevadans are about to find out what it’s like to deal with state government agencies that aren’t properly staffed. The experience will not be pleasant.

The state is embarking on forced employee furloughs, one of the options the Nevada Legislature adopted to counter the draconian budget cut proposals made by Gov. Jim Gibbons.

The furloughs, equivalent of 4.6 percent pay cuts, won’t hurt state employees financially quite as much as the 6 percent wage reduction Gibbons sought to balance the state budget. But the unpaid days off are certainly going to translate into longer waiting lines at state agencies and needless delays in service.

Andrew Clinger, the state director of administration, summed it up succinctly when he told Las Vegas Sun reporter David McGrath Schwartz: “It’s a nightmare.”

Common sense dictates that the state should avoid mandating furloughs for prison guards, Nevada Highway Patrol troopers and state parole and probation officers. Public safety is spread way too thin.

Sparing public safety, though, would simply shift the burden to the Department of Motor Vehicles, psychiatric hospitals and other state agencies that are also struggling to stay afloat.

“Basically what it’s doing is reducing the workforce,” DMV spokesman Tom Jacobs told the Sun.

Longtime Southern Nevada residents who recall the long lines, crowded lobbies and wasted days that represented trips to the local DMV office 20 years ago are certain to get a dose of deja vu when they renew their driver’s licenses.

Mentally ill patients may be forced to wait longer for treatment, increasing the potential that they will do harm to themselves or to others.

All of this plays into the hands of Gibbons, whose singular goal has been to cripple state government.

He has had ample opportunity to come up with solutions to improve the flow of revenue into state coffers — even in this troubled economy — but he has failed to become the leader Nevada needs during this critical juncture.

The furloughs are simply one example of that failed leadership.

Discussion: 7 comments so far…

By SgtRock

6/12/09 at 3:34 a.m.

Suggest removal

"The furloughs are simply one example of that failed leadership."

411...furloughs were the idea of the Democratic leadership...you know your pals Hordsford and Buckley.

I guess the Sun is calling them failed leadership.

That is OK with me.
By late49er

6/12/09 at 5:46 a.m.

Suggest removal

Why should sum zero worry?

He can always get special treatment for himself and those close to him with the dmv.

Won`t see the gov. in a line. He has too much to do texting his girlfriends.
By atdleft

6/12/09 at 6:20 a.m.

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SgtRock-

So would it have been better to simply fire the workers? I don't like the furloughs either, but that's what Buckley & Horsford offered to Raggio so he can line up Republicans behind the compromise budget. Personally I would have liked to keep the state fully staffed, but in order to do that we would have needed better funding. And for better funding, we would have had to actually address real tax reform.

As the saying goes, "You can't get something for nothing."
By larry5

6/12/09 at 8:09 a.m.

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"Mentally ill patients may be forced to wait longer for treatment, increasing the potential that they will do harm to themselves or to others."

Guilt trip - Good ploy!

Just watch and take note. You won't even notice a difference in the level of service you receive. They could double the furloughs and it wouldn't matter.

You're trying to give the impression that state agencies are run like well-oiled machines and this will cause them to be less than super-efficient.
By Future

6/12/09 at 9:05 a.m.

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We are broke get over it
By Molly

6/12/09 at 12:54 p.m.

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Hey, I'm cool with my unpaid days off/4.6% pay cut as a state employee. Let's see how cool the public is when something happens to a child & we're short-staffed. Then it will be: "Why didn't the government/law enforcement DO something to keep these creeps off the streets?!"

All of you who say we're overpaid & don't do anything, enjoy yourselves.
By SgtRock

6/12/09 at 6:20 p.m.

Suggest removal

"So would it have been better to simply fire the workers?"

The Gov wanted a salary decrease which many many people in the private industry are receiving.