The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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July 10, 2009

Haag helps kill furlough idea

By Mark Fischenich

State employees who won’t have to deal with unplanned, unwanted and unpaid time off can probably thank a union man from Le Sueur.

Bob Haag, the assistant executive director of the Minneasota Association of Professional Employees, did some research last spring on the potential loss in federal payments to the state if government employees were furloughed. Haag’s work came in response to a claim by the administration of Gov. Tim Pawlenty that the state could save nearly $67 million a year by requiring employees to take 12 days each year of unpaid furlough.

Haag’s conclusion? The lost federal revenue and other factors would cost the state just under $71 million.

MAPE Executive Director James Monroe believes Haag’s research was the primary reason the Pawlenty administration dropped the furlough idea.

“He did the work ...,” Monroe said. “He was able to document it.”

Haag said some members of the administration already knew that furloughs would put federal funds at risk but the information apparently didn’t get shared. Letters had been written by the inspector general’s office for the Social Security Adminstration and the federal Department of Labor.

Federal funds are granted to the state in the expectation that specific work will be done, Haag said. The letters made clear that the federal money would be at risk if the state attempted to keep the money when the furloughed employees weren’t doing the required work.

“They did not mince words,” Haag said. “In fact, they used the word ‘fraud’.”

Paul Larson, the assistant commissioner of the Management and Budget department and the state negotiator with employee unions, doesn’t agree with MAPE’s assertion that furloughs would cost more than they save.

“No, not at all,” Larson said. “There’s a significant savings in doing the furloughs.”

Reimbursements would need to be made to the federal government for some, but not all, programs when workers are furloughed, he said.

And Larson doesn’t rule out attempting to do furloughs if further savings are needed, although he said “we don’t have any current plans at this point.”

Haag stands by his calculations, saying they are — if anything — conservative about the cost-side of furloughs. And he said other states that are instituting furloughs as part of budget-balancing efforts are going find that out.

“They’re in for an eye-opener,” Haag said.

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