AUGUSTA – With public hearings on Gov. Paul LePage’s $6.1 billion biennial budget set to start next week, a conservative think tank said Wednesday that the plan would not cut enough state jobs.

An analysis by the Maine Heritage Policy Center concludes that Maine should eliminate 3,880 jobs from the state payroll.

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Tarren Bragdon, executive director of the of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, called LePage’s job cuts “moderate . . . “We think the governor’s budget could go much further.” 2010 Press Herald file

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, executive director of the Maine Heritage Policy Center. “We think the governor’s budget could go much further.”

The policy 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 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 was 4.7, the study said.

Maine’s employment ratio in 2009 was the 21st highest in the country, said Scott Moody, the center’s chief economist. Illinois, at 3.13, had the lowest ratio, and Hawaii, at 15.16, had the highest.

Maine’s ratio was higher than every other New England state except Vermont.

Bragdon, who was co-chair of the governor’s budget team, said he had urged deeper cuts and had showed LePage the study. He said the governor instead chose to take “baby steps.”

LePage has said the state’s work force should be reduced by 10 to 15 percent.

LePage spokesman Dan Demeritt said Wednesday that LePage still has that goal but believes he and his new commissioners need more time to understand state government before imposing mass layoffs.

Over the past eight years, Gov. John Baldacci reduced state positions by 1,000, mostly through attrition and a retirement incentive program. Baldacci and LePage also implemented hiring freezes.

There are currently 400 vacant state positions. Administration officials have discussed the possible elimination of 250 of those positions.

Relative to the national average, Moody said, Maine’s employment ratio shows “over-employment” in only three government functions: state highway maintenance, public welfare programs and higher education.

He said the state’s higher education system does not have too many teachers, but does have 1,100 more people in non-instructional jobs than it should if it is to meet the national employment-ratio average.

Bruce Hodsdon, president of the Maine State Employees Association, which represents 15,000 state workers, said the policy center’s ratio seems “arbitrary.”

He said the federal government funds many state jobs. 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, Hodsdon said.

“Maine employees are still a much better deal,” he said.

MaineToday Media State House Writer Tom Bell can be contacted at 699-6261 or at:

tbell@mainetoday.com

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