A furlough plan for Maryland state employees started Friday to help make up for an unexpectedly large budget shortfall this fiscal year, and union leaders said many employees are worried because Maryland’s fiscal crisis looks even stormier next year.
Thousands of employees are affected by Gov. Martin O’Malley’s furlough and salary reduction plan, which will save an estimated $34 million. It’s the first time state employees have been required to take unpaid days off since 1992, when Maryland last endured a recession. The furloughs affect about 67,000 of the state’s 80,000 employees; most will take at least two days, and some higher-paid workers will take more.
The furloughs were ordered to help make up for $415 million in less-than-expected revenue for this fiscal year, but next year’s budget deficit is nearly $2 billion.
“I’m worried about what the next set of cuts is going to be,” said Mildred Womble, an American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union representative for employees at the state’s Motor Vehicle Administration.
The O’Malley administration already has gone through previous rounds of budget cuts, creating increasingly difficult decisions. Last week, O’Malley’s budget secretary proposed reducing $37.9 million from a fund for parts of the state where education costs more.
Womble, who said she was using the stay-at-home time Friday to work on collective bargaining paperwork, said state workers already were looking for second jobs to help make ends meet.
“A lot of people, they’re worried,” she said. “A lot of us are wondering where are we going to get that money back into our pockets.”
Rai Douglas, an AFSCME leader and senior agent with the division of parole and probation, said he cut back on Christmas spending as a result of the lost pay. Douglas also said it was harder to take the furloughs in stride, since they came just weeks after the state announced $71 million in land purchases for conservation.
Andre Powell, a union steward at the Department of Social Services in Baltimore, said the furloughs gave his office one fewer day to help process applications for food stamps or medical assistance.
Nevertheless, he said: “We certainly prefer furlough to layoffs and eliminating jobs.”
