Hundreds of exemptions to state hiring freeze
A chill is in the air at hiring offices around state government, but it's a stretch to call it a freeze.
The News Tribune
TACOMA, Wash. —A chill is in the air at hiring offices around state government, but it's a stretch to call it a freeze.
Officially, there is a hiring freeze on the books. But state agencies have won exemptions that have opened the door to 1,700 hires since the freeze began in March, a News Tribune analysis found.
Mostly back-office staff such as managers, secretaries and accountants, the approved positions run the full spectrum of government. There are janitors and lobbyists, graphic designers and managers of athletic facilities, an oil spill expert and a horse racing regulator.
Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget office has to sign off on most of the requests. The office has denied fewer than 1 in 13 jobs.
Thousands more workers have been hired because their jobs were never subject to the freeze to begin with. Those are mostly jobs on the front lines: prison guards and park rangers, social workers and nurses, farm inspectors and tax collectors, to name a few.
It's what happens in a work force of more than 100,000 government jobs, even one that has shrunk in recent years.
Employees resign or retire. Lawmakers dream up new programs that need to be staffed. Administrators reorganize their agencies to cope with smaller budgets and create positions in the process.
It's why the budget office was against the freeze from the start.
Julie Murray of the Office of Financial Management told senators last winter that agencies should be allowed to manage their remaining money as they see fit, once they've made the cuts and changes ordered by lawmakers.
Monday, December 13, 2010
The lie of the Washington State Hiring Freeze.
Speaks for itself. You never really thought the democrats would thin the ranks of the public employee unions, did you? More:
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