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The state workforce has mostly stayed intact during the pandemic. State leaders want to keep it that way

Tom Avila waits for the next truck in line at the Woodburn port of entry. (Sam Stites/Pamplin Media)

As Oregon’s governor and Legislature prepare to climb out of a multi-billion budget hole caused by the coronavirus pandemic, they will likely shrink Salem’s largest employer – or at least keep it from getting bigger.

Next month, lawmakers are expected to convene in a special session to rebalance the state budget after a $2.7 billion drop in the state’s general fund for the current two-year budget cycle with further declines expected in years to come.

Both Gov. Kate Brown and legislative leaders have proposed ways to trim state operations. Both have sought to minimize layoffs of current employees and instead plan to let vacant positions go unfilled.

Fewer government jobs will mean fewer paychecks in Salem. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 39,000 Salem residents worked in state government as of June 2020.

 The checks state workers take home range from $333,723 for a physician working at the Oregon Health Authority to the $7,834 made by a part-time transportation services representative, according to a state database. The average annual pay is $63,485.

While there have been layoffs and furloughs in some agencies, state workers have so far  have for the most part kept their jobs. Oregon Employment Department numbers show that state government jobs have not only stayed steady but even increased. In June, there were 41,500 state government jobs across Oregon, a 1% increase from a year ago, according to Employment Department figures.

“At the statewide level, we have not directed any job cuts or layoffs,” Liz Merah, the governor’s press secretary, said in an email. “As we look to balance the budget in an upcoming special session, the governor’s priority is to preserve critical services, such as education, health care, and senior services, and to avoid layoffs at a time when Oregonians need state programs and services the most.”

Similarly, the co-chairs of the Legislature’s Joint Ways and Means Committee have released a framework for balancing the state’s budget that seeks to prevent trimming state jobs. Their plan calls for preserving spending on public education, health care, child welfare, housing and economic development. It also calls for closing Shutter Creek Correctional Institution in North Bend and Warner Creek Correctional Facility in Lakeview, among other measures.

State Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, a Portland Democrat who co-chairs the committee, said that the framework would delay funding for new state programs that have not been implemented yet as well as the jobs needed to run the programs.

She said that the plan would prevent laying off state employees to preserve services and not add to the state’s high unemployment rate.

“There will be fewer jobs that are posted but very few layoffs,” she said.

The governor’s office has released a document describing how to cover $146.1 million in reductions. The proposal calls for using federal or other funds to cover general fund costs, as well as reduction to programs and equipment purchases.

The document also includes savings from not filling vacant positions. But it doesn’t give the number of jobs left empty or include the amount saved from not filling positions.

Merah said that there is no centralized source of data on vacancies at the state level. She said the vacant positions include jobs left open after workers retired or otherwise left the state work force and from new programs going unstaffed. She added that agencies have been directed to slow non-critical spending, including on vacancies.

Ben Morris, communications director for SEIU Local 503, said that state agencies account for vacancies in their budgets and that hiring freezes are a way to significantly save money without putting people out of work.

Figures from the Oregon Employment Department show that the number of state positions plummeted in years following the recession of 2008. In 2011, there was an average of 80,600 state government jobs in Oregon. By 2018, it dropped to 39,400.

Morris, whose union represents a large share of state workers, pointed to research showing that cuts to state government following the 2008 recession delayed the economic recovery.

During the pandemic, state agencies have taken varied approaches to staffing. 

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife currently has 338 vacant positions (including 223 seasonal positions) and has delayed filling positions because of the uncertainty, department spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy said in an email.

The Oregon State Police is budgeted for 1,402 positions and implemented a hiring freeze in March, according to spokesman Capt. Timothy Fox. Currently, it has 1,329 employees, a slight increase from last year.

The Oregon Department of Revenue has 156 vacancies with plans to fill them, according to department spokesman Rich Hoover.

Steiner Hayward didn’t have numbers of how many vacant positions won’t be filled or how many fewer state government jobs there will be. She said there will be a better picture of reductions to the state workforce as legislative subcommittees work through the budget.

On Wednesday, the Joint Interim Committee On Ways and Means Subcommittee On Natural Resources held a hearing on cuts to several agencies. According to testimony submitted by Tom Byler, director of the Water Resources Department, five jobs will be left vacant under the proposed plan. A current technical assistance program would be cut under the proposal, according to his testimony.

As lawmakers have prepared for the special session, there has been hope that Congress would approve another relief package to help state’s like Oregon balance their budgets. But Steiner Hayward is skeptical that help will come in time or will be enough.

“I am not looking to the federal government to solve this problem for us,” she said.

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Contact reporter Jake Thomas at 503-575-1251 or [email protected] or @jakethomas2009.