Fitzsimon File

Outgoing State Auditor Ralph Campbell did us all a favor Thursday with his warnings that the state must begin to treat state workers better or face the consequences of even higher turnover and poorer state services.

In a wide-ranging performance audit of agencies in state government, Campbell says that one of the most pressing issues is the state’s ability to attract and retain new workers, heavily dependent on offering competitive salaries and benefits, possibly including on site centers for day care and fitness. He points out that a significant portion of the current state workforce is closing on retirement age.

It is easy to lose perspective about state employees in the Raleigh-inside-the-beltline world. Virtually every issue is political and everybody at the legislature is considered a special interest. Decisions about pay raises and health insurance for thousands of workers and their families are bandied back and forth by legislative leaders, traded for museums, more money for the nursing home industry, or lawmakers’ pet projects.

Campbell’s audit reminds us that it is past time that we change that and stop thinking about state workers as just part of some interest group. They are the people who provide all the services we rely on from state government, from first responders to emergencies to forest rangers to people taking care of disabled children.

When the anti-tax, anti-investment crowd calls for shrinking government, they are talking about reducing services for all of us and firing the employees who provide them.

More than half of state workers make less than $30,000 a year. That would qualify a family of three for Health Choice, the state’s health care program for poor children.

During the last four years of state budget problems, the employees have received little or no raises, $625 one year, none the next. That year they received two weeks of vacation. At the same time health care premiums and co-pays have risen, swallowing the small pay increases. The premiums are likely to rise again.

The proposal calling for lawmakers to spend more than $200 million on the state health plan also calls for a 12 percent increase in the premium for family coverage. That would make the premium for family coverage $478 a month. And many pundits are balking at spending any more money on insurance for state workers.

Providing decent, affordable health care for the folks who provide us with services is just bloated government after all.

Campbell commented to reporters that when people hear about his recommendations for day care and higher pay, they might say, “the auditor has lost his mind.”

He’s right. The anti-government crowd will say that and the fact that Campbell knows it says a lot about the policy debate these days.

The state ought be run like a business, they tell us. But successful businesses invest in their workers, knowing that it keeps people on the job and makes them more productive.

Sounds like a plan for this legislature, and good for Ralph Campbell for pointing it out.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 13th, 2005 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.