Keep it Public

Governor should cut consultants, not government workers

By Kenneth Brynien
Public Employees Federation

The New York state budget needs cuts in wasteful spending. While fair taxation is an absolute necessity, consultants shouldn’t be exempt from elimination.

In a state that’s been struggling with a $16 billion deficit and a tax structure targeted to the middle class, the question isn’t whether state-funded consultants should be eliminated. It’s how many.

Allowing the wealthy to continue to escape fair taxation was absurd. New York will be helped by having imposed fairer taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers for the next three years. This temporary fix will allow the state to continue to provide vital services to its citizens.

Unfortunately, this change and the other measures being taken by the governor and the Legislature still leave a $481 million gap the governor wants to close with state employee layoffs or pay and benefit cuts. However, in an operation where so much money is being wasted on contract consultants, elimination of these wasteful contracts is not just a possible alternative, it is a necessity.

The sad fact of the matter is the number of employees Gov. David Paterson is talking about laying off over two years may be close to the number of costly consultants he hires over that time. Unfortunately, the state’s hiring freeze has only been an excuse to waste more money by expanding the dependence on costly consultants as a way to continue to provide necessary services. So, instead of saving money, more is wasted.

The governor’s unwillingness to even discuss the numbers of consultants that should be eliminated has left the unions with little choice but to refuse to enter into any discussions about savings. Especially since the state spends about $3 billion annually on an estimated 22,000 consultants. That’s right: 22,000 consultants.

It is not clear how continuing to waste money on costly consultants who will be getting 4 percent or 5 percent increases in their contracts this year, while demanding that the state workers who are on average making at least one-third less than the consultants give up their 3 percent raise and five days pay, is a smart move for the governor or the taxpayers. Sometimes consultants make two to three times what a state employee would make doing the same job.

The position that consultants should not have to give up anything at all, at the same time the governor threatens state workers with layoffs and pay deferrals, is not tenable. Consultant contractors are not exempt from a deep recession. No job losses are desirable, but eliminating contract consultants to at least provide some of the cost reduction needed to offset the state revenue losses and, in the process, limit further demands on the already distressed taxpayers that foot the bills becomes necessary.

The state could save $730 million over three years just by replacing half of its private consultants with state employees.

Paterson’s reach extends only to the agencies of the executive branch. Contract consultants at the state universities, the Legislature, the courts and various public authorities are beyond the reach of the governor’s effort to reduce their numbers. The Legislature can, in some cases, cut the funding for contract consultants of those various offices and agencies, and the state budget office can lean on agency heads to save money.

New York has taken steps to make the tax system a little fairer. The taxpayers should get the most for the taxes they pay by taking the corporate profit out of public work and letting public servants do their jobs.

Kenneth Brynien is president of the New York State Public Employees Federation.