Main Street

The View from Main Street

Municipal employee layoffs continue around the nation.

In Rochester, NY 116 teachers are getting laid off, at a time when they’d be thinking about going back to work:

Among the layoffs were 9 music teachers, 9 physical education teachers and 9 art teachers. Teachers union president Adam Urbanski said those subjects are not mandated in the primary grades to be taught by certified teachers.

“It’s really a huge, huge blow to education in city schools if music teachers, phys ed teachers, art teachers are eliminated or reduced in the elementary grades,” said Urbanski.

In Yonkers, NY the curious decision has been made to lay off more teachers rather than cut the fall sports program:

After eliminating more than 10 percent of its staff, the district will cut deeper to save high school sports in the fall.

A $43 million shortfall that forced the district to shed staff and programs threatened an elimination of the district’s interscholastic sports, but public objections caused officials to reverse course, at least until the winter sports season.

Yonkers Schools Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio said the reversal would require other sacrifices.

“We will continue with at least the fall sports program. Not to dash the dreams of our young people, so they can compete and continue the camaraderie on and off the athletic field, but it will come at a price,” Pierorazio said.

In the Lenape School District of New Jersey, some jobs were saved:

Despite issuing pink slips to more than 400 employees after its proposed budget was defeated in April, the Lenape Regional High School District laid off only about one-fourth that amount.

The change came after the state education commissioner decided at the end of June on a $138 million 2010-11 budget for the district.

The budget — about $3 million less than last year’s spending plan — includes no teacher layoffs, although it does cut 24 positions through attrition.

In Lynwood, WA the city faces a $21 million budget gap in 2011. The biggest part of the budget is public safety.

In short, there’s a projected gap of about $9 million between the amount of money the police department needs and what’s expected to be available in 2011-12. That number represents about 25 percent of the police department’s share of the two-year budget.

Those projections are sending shockwaves through City Hall.

As many as 23 police department jobs may be cut, including the sole animal control officer, patrol officers, office support staff and more, said Mark Brinkman, president of the Lynnwood Police Guild, which represents the lion’s share of the department’s employees. Cuts of that magnitude “would decimate the department,” Brinkman said.

In the city’s budget has been steadily decreasing for the last 4 years. The finance director expects another $1.5 million budget cut. Voters will be asked to approve an increase in the income tax rate, or a number of city employees will have to be laid off:

Sengstock projects that 43 of the city’s 169 employees would need to be laid off to balance the books at the end of 2011. That includes half the police force, half the fire department and half the service department.

Of course cities and towns aren’t the only ones feeling the budget pinch. A new, rather ominous trend is hospital layoffs.

In Plymouth, MA:

Jordan Hospital has notified 15 veteran employees that their medical transcription jobs will be eliminated next month.

Jeff Hall, spokesman for Local 1199 Service Employees International Union, said the medical recordkeeping jobs are being outsourced to a New Jersey-based company that provides medical transcription services.

The 15 employees were notified of the layoffs last week and will lose their jobs Aug. 14.

oops

News of the layoffs comes just days after South Shore Hospital in Weymouth announced a security breach that resulted in the loss of medical records for up to 800,000 patients and staff. South Shore Hospital has refused to identify the data management company involved in the loss of its records.

Hall said Jordan Hospital cited South Shore’s success in outsourcing medical recordkeeping in proposing the cutbacks last week.

In Hartford, CT:

St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center will lay off about 200 employees in late August, as a shortfall in reimbursements for Medicare and Medicaid and a “modest decline” in patients exacerbates an already tight financial picture, the hospital’s chief executive said.

and

St. Francis, with 572 beds, had a deficit of $31.7 million, or 5.6 percent of its total revenue, in the year ending June 30, 2008, according to a state report. That year, the cost of care that the hospital provided without receiving payment grew from $12.5 million to $15 million. But in fiscal year 2009, St. Francis was in the black, with a 1.8 percent margin, the state Office of Health Care Access reported.

In 2009, as investments recovered and as hospitals slowed the pace of spending, in part by reducing staff through attrition and layoffs, more of the state’s 30 acute-care hospitals were in the black. Sixteen had higher surpluses or profits than St. Francis in fiscal year 2009, and 13 had worse financial performance. A report for the most recent fiscal year is not yet available.

It sounds like they’re downsizing in order to continue to turn a profit.

One extremely important point:

Health care union representatives said that St. Francis has no unionized employees.

In Ashland, KY:

A union official indicated that 85 people were terminated and 150 others reduced to part time status. The cutbacks took effect immediately.

From the statement made by the hospital:

The economic recession has hit our region hard and is lasting longer than anyone expected. KDMC has weathered the economic downturn for two years by minimizing capital expenditures, changing benefits, renegotiating contracts and changing flow processes whenever possible to improve efficiency. However, the harsh reality is that patients are delaying their own healthcare and often those who are receiving the needed care cannot pay forit. Unreimbursed care and bad debt are at an all-time high for our organization — approaching the $100 million mark this year, which is a 33 percent increase over just a year ago. This is a $25 million dollar difference in one year. Cost reductions alone cannot compensate for this change in our community and in our country.

That’s a stark illustration of the actual economic realities being faced around the country. We hear a lot about recovery on Wall St. No one lives on Wall St. The folks who live on Main St. have a very different view.

Tags: budget cuts, layoffs, public sector workers, unemployment