AUGUSTA — With public hearings on Gov. Paul LePage’s $6.1 billion biennial budget set to start next week, a conservative think tank today released a study that said the budget does not cut enough state jobs.
Maine needs to eliminate 3,880 jobs to be in line with the national average, according to an analysis by the Maine Heritage Policy Center.
Although LePage during his campaign described the state’s work force as a “bloated bureaucracy,” his budget eliminates only 81 state jobs,12 of which are filled.
“The governor’s budget is moderate when you look at the scope of the problem,” said Tarren Bragdon, who was co-chair of the governor’s budget team and works as executive director of the Maine Heritage Policy Center. “We think the governor’s budget could go much further.”
The center’s analysis considered the state’s “employment ratio,” which it described as the number of state employees for every 100 people employed in the private sector. The analysis also includes workers in Maine’s higher education system.
According to the study, Maine’s state government in 2009 employed 27,656 full- and part-time workers and had an employment ratio of 5.5. The national average is 4.7.
Maine’s employment ratio is the 21st highest in the country, said Scott Moody, the center’s chief economist.
Relative to the national average, he said, Maine has “over-employment” in only three government functions – maintaining the state’s highways, providing public welfare programs and running higher education programs.
He said the state does not have too many teachers in the state’s higher education system. Rather, it has 1,100 more people in non-instructional jobs than the national average, he said.
Bruce Hodsdon, president of the Maine State Employees Association, which represents 15,000 state workers, said the ratio developed by the Maine Heritage Policy Center seems “arbitrary.”
He said the federal government funds many state jobs. He said that outsourcing jobs – particularly those in the Department of Transportation – would end up costing more money because private contractors charge higher fees and expect to make a profit.
“Maine employees are still a much better deal,” he said.
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