By james art 
State agencies are playing a game of financial shells, allocating money for unfilled positions and using this to increase the payment of existing employees.
Famu workers get together to launch a new staff union
The employees of the University of Florida A&M, together with Campus and Community supporters, gathered at the roundabout located on Famu Way and Railroad Avenue for a rally to launch a new union.
- State agencies in Florida are struggling to fill thousands of positions due to low pay and a strict labor market.
- To compensate, agencies use funds allocated for unfilled positions to raise the salaries of existing employees.
- Legislators now question budgeting practices and are looking for solutions to deal with the staff crisis.
A recent legislative hearing at the beginning hinted that it would investigate the carriage of the state government: State services for thousands of workers unable to provide paid services to the Floridians taxpayers.
But scratching the surface suggested that there was more game.
As the state’s reputation has recently learned, after considering the duration of the ten vacancies, the conversation in the government services can actually awaken hordes of paper people – workers who exist only as an agreed position in the state budget.
Lopez, a Republican in Miami, chaired the Committee for the State Administration of the House of Florida. He writes the budget for 12 agencies, including revenue, financial services and lottery departments, along with half a dozen other offices that process most of the financial documents for the state.
Low pay for a strict labor market makes it difficult to fill the vacancies, this panel was said. Thus, government agencies play something like a financial shell game, allocating money for unfilled positions and using this to increase the pay for existing employees.
At a hearing last week, Lopez said their bureaucratic budget maneuvering-a 10 position funding and leaving five of them were free to hire five more over the minimum of the payment class-should be completed.
Lopez said, “I think we should look at this and ask,” Do we budget properly? “I want a budget that reflects the real situation. ”
However, there are hundreds of funded positions, budget lines under the supervision of Lopez, which have remained unfilled for nearly three years and some of six.
Jim Zinigil, CEO of the Ministry of Revenue (DOR), told legislators that long -standing vacancies are extremely important because “we need them to finance the filled ones.”
Dor annually collects and allocates more than $ 40 billion in sales tax revenue, another $ 1.6 billion annually in child support payments and administers a property tax that provides hundreds of billion dollars to schools and local authorities.
A senior lawyer there with an initial salary of $ 58,000 has been vacant since 2019. Another 60 positions have been open for at least two years.
At this meeting on February 12, Lopez provided the Commission with information on the salaries of the agencies they control, taking into account a combined shortage of staff of 12%or 1372 vacancies, with more than half of the jobs as accountants, auditors, tax specialists, investigators and positions of the inspector in Talahasi.
“In the meantime, I have other services that require money that we say we don’t have,” Lopez said.
State workers say that offers for proposals, execution of contracts and the beginning of the projects were delayed by a lack of workers. Vicky Hall, President of the AFSCME Council 79, the biggest chapter of the union of state workers in the state services, said “employees are overworked and burned … which means that residents do not receive the services they deserve.”
Florida is among a dozen states who are trying to understand how to deal with the end of pandemic help from the Biden era and the growing cost of health and education without increasing taxes, according to Pew’s charity trusts. State economists have warned that a $ 2 billion surplus this year can immerse a deficit of $ 6.9 billion in two years.
Zingale, as well as Scott Fennel, Deputy CFO at the Ministry of Financial Services, and John Schraeder, head of staff at the Ministry of Management Management, all said the state had difficulty hiring people. DMS, for example, has been without a general inspector for almost two years.
Zingale and Fennell cite the low start of the state compared to the private sector as the cause. In order to remain competitive in hiring, they said that their departments often use some of the money assigned to vacancies to pay new hires over the minimum pay class – pushing the starting salary to the average pay, which is usually thousands of dollars more As much as $ 9,000 in some cases.
The department has left two lawyer’s positions unfinished for six years and has 50 more positions of regulatory analysts, investigators and law enforcement, free for at least two years. In general, there are currently 276 vacancies.
When Lopez asked Fennel about the recommendation of the governor’s budget Ron Ron Ron to reduce 62 full -time DFS positions, Fennell said “it will be a lot”.
“There are probably some positions that we could shorten without much heart pain. We would like to work with you and your staff to come and give you a list of them,” Fennel said.
Lopez directed agencies to submit the proposed cost reductions from 2-3% until Friday, February 21st. Reducing costs can be achieved by eliminating positions.
“I really want you to delete your operating budgets and see where we have categories of waste or superfluous. However, I do not want reductions that would have a complete reduction in Florida services, “Lopez told the agency leaders.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Lopez outlined the key questions he wants to answer.
“Do we budget properly,” she started and “do we have enough people? I mean, do we really have enough people to do the job? If we don’t, do we pay them the right salary? ”
James Call is a member of USA Today Network-Florida Capital Bureau. Next to it can be found at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahasseeS