State Civil Service board revises proposal on raises

About 60,000 state civil service employees would be eligible for a 3 percent to 5 percent annual pay raise, depending on their job evaluations, under a merit pay proposal considered Wednesday.

The state Civil Service Commission directed its staff to advertise and seek comments on the plan. The commission is expected to bring it up for discussion and a possible vote at its March 2-3 meeting.

The last commission proposal was vetoed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, who said he wants to give state agencies more latitude in granting the annual merit pay raises. He also opposed the top-level raise of 6 percent.

The plan now being floated would give agencies the authority to approve a 3 percent annual raise to workers who meet expectations and a 4 percent raise for those who exceed them, the same as they were in the plan Jindal rejected last month.

Jindal Executive Counsel Stephen Waguespack said the major sticking point is the flat 3 to 5 percent pay-raise language. He said the administration would like to see the language in the proposal read "not to exceed" those levels.

Under the state Constitution, the commission and the governor must agree on the pay issues.

Civil service panel, Jindal at odds

The Civil Service Commission is at odds with Gov. Bobby Jindal over how to revamp the way pay raises are given to thousands of state government workers.

The commission agreed Wednesday to send out a compromise proposal for public comment, with a possible vote in March.

But several commission members said they won't back a proposal that Jindal wants, that would give near-total discretion to agency managers on the amount of the pay raises.

Streamlining Panel: State Programs, contracts cost millions

Members of the Commission on Streamlining Government told legislators that most agencies were slow in providing information on programs and contracts that cost the state millions of dollars a year.

The streamlining commission completed its work late last year. Lawmakers are supposed to use the panel’s recommendations as an aid in dealing with a state budget shortfall that is expected to top $3 billion over the next two years.

House Speaker Pro Tem Karen Peterson, D-New Orleans, said she feels ill prepared, given the commission’s struggle to get information about contracts and programs.

Other lawmakers expressed concerns about the 238 recommendations that the commission produced.

The recommendations include:

• A 2 percent across-the-board budget cut.
• Eventually dissolving the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which is a state-run insurer of last resort.
• Requiring the public to pay fees to cover the full cost of providing state services.
• Tinkering with the state retirement system.

State Rep. Rosalind Jones, D-Monroe, said she is finding it difficult to identify recommendations that will help the state with its immediate budget problems.

Jones pointed to a suggestion about changing the structure of the state retirement system and asked how it would work.

Donahue said he did not know.

“I don’t have a crystal ball. I have the same question … I don’t know how it would work,” he admitted. He said the idea was to make the recommendation to encourage the state to explore the issue.

LASERS-Did you know?

LASERS is a qualified defined benefit pension retirement plan under section 401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Employees contribute to LASERS at a percentage of their actual earnings. These contributions are tax sheltered until retirement.

Dept. of Revenue encourages electronic filing with Louisiana File Online

The Louisiana Department of Revenue (LDR) encourages all taxpayers to file electronically their tax returns for the 2009 tax year.

Louisiana File Online is the state’s single-source location for all individual and business tax filing requirements

.

Visit www.fileonline.revenue.louisiana.gov to take advantage of this fast, easy-to-use, absolutely free public resource.

Among its many advantages, Louisiana File Online allows taxpayers to:

1. File returns and pay taxes electronically

2. Check the status of individual income tax refunds

3. Amend tax returns

4. View business tax information for the current and previous years

Beginning with the 2009 Louisiana Resident Individual Income Tax Return, due no later than May 15, 2010, LDR will cease to distribute paper returns through the mail. For the 2008 filing year, LDR distributed 180,000 pre-printed returns to taxpayers on file at a cost of $250,000. We received back fewer than 40,000 of them. The cost of postage is another real savings advantage from electronic filing.

The filing deadline for 2009 individual state income tax returns is May 15, 2010.

State employee retirement system ripe for overhaul, House speaker says

Louisiana's speaker of the House on Wednesday pledged a strong effort in the spring lawmaking session to change some of the state's most traditional programs, such as the government-employee retirement system and higher education's emphasis on four-year colleges.

Among the targeted programs, Tucker said the state employee retirement systems have accumulated an unfunded liability that will cost the state precious dollars and is crowding out investments in other areas.

He suggested that the state's current system, which pays certain levels of retirement checks in a defined benefits program, should be shifted into a defined contribution system, such as 401(k) programs typical in the private sector, or toward a system that changes the level of defined benefits.

He said Gov. Bobby Jindal and legislators are eager to take risks and make changes.

The biggest issue facing lawmakers in the upcoming legislative session is a $1 billion budget shortfall for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Over the next two years, the state budget hole is expected to grow to more than $3 billion, largely because of problems with health-care funding.

Revenue cannot sustain expenditures, Tucker said.

He outlined other problems, including:

• Nearly $800 million in funds for roads, nursing homes and health care that the federal government wants the state to repay.
• An outdated public health-care system that cares for more than 25 percent of Louisiana’s residents.
• A bloated state workforce.
• The number of people who go to college and emerge with debt but not a degree.
• Declining state tax collections.
• A national health-care package that could increase the state’s Medicaid program costs.

Civil Service Commissioner concerned about privatizing some state jobs

The Jindal administration could be making a mistake as it tries to turn over some state government jobs to the private sector, Civil Service Commission member Lee Griffin said Wednesday.

Griffin questioned administration officials who updated the commission on the potential privatization of some operations of the state’s Office of Risk Management —its self-insurance program — and the Office of State Building and Grounds.

Requests for proposals from private business require companies to hire state employees who otherwise would be losing their jobs.

In each case, some 80 state employees would lose their state jobs if the administration decides that a private business can provide the services “in a more cost-beneficial way,” said Barbara Goodson, assistant commissioner of administration. “It’s tying the hands of the vendor — by setting the number of employees it would hire,” Griffin said. That could affect the financial savings of any proposal submitted, he said.

The commission must sign-off on contracts that eliminate state classified employee jobs.