As California businesses and local governments shed droves of jobs this past year, the state of California’s payroll ballooned by thousands of new hires.
In the 12 months that ended in June, the state enlisted 3,600 additional workers — a 0.7 percent gain, according to the state Employment Development Department.
California’s private industry slashed about 760,000 jobs — a 6-percent loss — during the same period. Local governments shrunk by 1.5 percent.
“Obviously not every hire that the state makes is unreasonable, but as a trend it’s a total indication of the problem that we have that the state doesn’t live within its means,” said Scott Macdonald, spokesman for Californians Against Higher Taxes.
As San Bernardino County’s unemployment rate soars to 13.6 percent — with more than 17,000 searching for work in the High Desert — critics are deploring state growth that seems to defy a state cash-flow crisis amid a brutal recession.
After hiring 17,791 more state workers in 2006-07, the state added 27,659 more by the middle of 2009, according to the state legislative analyst.
To help close a swelling budget deficit, the Legislature raised $12.5 billion in taxes in February and more recently agreed on seizing and borrowing nearly $4 billion from local governments.
“We can’t continue to overspend, and then turn around and look at taxpayers and businesses and say, ‘Now you have to pony up,’” Macdonald said.
Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, provided a critical vote to pass the budget with the tax hikes, arguing the deal was necessary to resume strapped government services and pass a budget in both houses. But he said he will push to pare down the state payroll.
“I think it’s wrong that the state gains hiring at a time when everyone else is having to make massive layoffs,” Adams said. “We’ve asked our state employees to take furlough days, but we still have a large amount of obligations to everyone employed by the state, and it’s obvious to me that the state can’t afford that right now.”
Adams said more positions could be eliminated from state and county education offices and unnecessary social programs.
California spent about $30 billion on compensation and benefits for its 350,000 employees last fiscal year, according to the legislative analyst. That’s an average of more than $85,000 per employee. Last year labor accounted for more than 29 percent of state expenditures.
State government has begun making some cutbacks. The state lost about 600 executive branch jobs over the past year.
The state trimmed more than 1 percent of its workforce by eliminating 5,000 positions, some vacant, and is looking to cut another 2,000 positions. All state workers took a 14-percent pay cut through mandatory furlough days.
The state has hired more workers in part because there’s been an increase in the need for public services, said Jim Zamora, spokesman for the Service Employee International Union Local 1000, the largest state employees union.
The state Employment Development Department, for example, is reportedly looking to hire 1,500 more employees to accommodate the surging jobless population, he said.
“If you’re General Motors and you’re selling fewer cars, well you don’t need to build as many cars so you’re probably going to cut staff,” Zamora said. “In the state of California while certainly revenues are down, just as many people are being sent to prison as before. Just as many people come into the DMV office — the needs haven’t changed.”
Some state employees are funded through federal money or department revenue, and some state workers can’t be cut directly by the Legislature, Zamora said.
The University of California system — which employs about 180,000 state workers — makes its own hiring decisions. If a school has been awarded a federal grant for stem-cell research, for example, officials could choose to hire more researchers just as they raise tuition rates for students, Zamora said.
Zamora said he supports state workers sharing in financial sacrifices.
But there are plenty of other places burdened by government waste outside the payroll, such as too many high-priced state contracts with outside consultants, he said.
From 2003 to 2007, the state population grew by 5 percent — but the state budget swelled by 31 percent, according to Macdonald.
“While people are scrimping and saving, the state has raised taxes $12.5 billion, and we know when the Legislature comes back on the 17th (of August), there are a number of legislators that have said they are pushing for more taxes,” Macdonald said. “It’s no wonder that there is a lack of faith in state government.”
A recent Public Policy Institute of California poll revealed public approval of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has sunk to an all-time low — 28 percent. The Legislature’s is even worse, at 17 percent.
As of Saturday, the State Personnel Board Web site advertised 1,932 state job openings, including 74 state jobs available in San Bernardino County.
