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Protect Your Pensions! VOTE! |
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Tuesday, 31 March 2009 |
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Ron Hagen is a labor friendly candidate that KOSE has fully endorsed for KPERS Trustee. Ron believes in the importance of protecting our pensions. As a state employee for 23 years, we believe him to be the best candidate available in our ongoing fight to serve state employees. Voting is simple. Dial 866-980-0955 throughout the month of April. Vote for Ron Hagen, candidate #28. To see his full experience and education, view his poster HERE. |
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State Employees Respond to Possible Pay Delay |
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Tuesday, 24 March 2009 |
TOPEKA – Today, House Speaker Mike O’Neal and Senate President Steve Morris announced that the state Finance Council would not take up a measure to address the state’s severe cash shortage until Governor Sebelius signed the deficit-reduction bill. As has been done in the past when the state has faced a similar cash shortage, the Governor had intended to request authority to borrow $225 million in order to issue payroll and income tax returns.
Without the loan, the state has halted the payment of tax returns and state employees may have to wait for pay day. “Once again, state employees are being used by the Legislature to balance the budget,” said Lisa Ochs, KOSE President.
Past practice has proven that state employees bear the burden of any crisis in the budget. “For years, state employees have been the last to be funded and the first to be cut. State employees have helped balance this budget in the past – they continue to work with unacceptable benefits and strikingly low salaries. Again, times are tough, but even during relatively good years, the budget has always been balanced on the back of state workers,” said Jane Carter, Executive Director of KOSE.
In fact, Kansas can’t afford to target state employees for additional cuts. “These are financially troubling times for everyone, and it is a sad maneuver to play politics with people’s livelihoods,” said Carter.
Statewide, turnover is an avoidable cost that is harming the state. State employees are leaving their positions due to an overwhelming work load, insufficient benefits, and embarrassingly low wages. Information from national independent organizations and the US Department of Labor reveal a poignant portrait of the current condition of state employees in Kansas:
Employee benefits per dollar of salary are the worst in the nation - Pew Center
The state’s workforce is in pretty dire shape, thanks to an inconsistent pay system that can’t compete in the labor market – Pew Center
Kansas ranks 40th in the nation for pay – US Bureau of Labor Statistics
The total average compensation is well below the national average - Pew Center
One in three state employees are more than 25% below the market – The Hay Group
“This is another race to the bottom for state employees by the Leadership of the Legislature. State employees simply have no more to give. Paychecks shouldn’t be held hostage for political maneuvering,” said Ochs.
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State Workers Head to Topeka to Dsicuss Pay, Respect |
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Tuesday, 24 March 2009 |
State Employees Head to Topeka and Discuss Pay, Respect
KOSE Members to Meet with Legislators on Budget Cuts, Pay Plan
TOPEKA, KANSAS— On Tuesday, members of the Kansas Organization of State Employees (KOSE) will march on the Statehouse in Topeka to discuss issues on pay, protection, and benefits with Legislators. State employees from all over Kansas will participate in the State Employee Advocacy Day, with more than one hundred expected in attendance. Employees from KDOT, Larned, every Correctional Facility, SRS, and Osawatomie will spend the day talking about issues that matter to them and the need to support the Governor’s budget recommendations.
For years, state employees’ salaries and wages have been left to the end of the legislative session. This year, is no different. “We’re the last to be funded and the first to be cut,” says Lisa Ochs, President of KOSE. The current budget woes should not be another excuse to balance the budget on the backs of state employees.
Based on data from the US Census Bureau, Kansas ranks 40th in the nation for wages. Even the outside consulting firm, the Hay Group, has shown that 1 in every 3 state employees is more than 25% below market. States like Iowa, Minnesota, and Ohio rank in the top ten for pay, while Kansas has continuously ranked in the bottom ten. According to the nationally recognized group, The Pew Center, Kansas state employees have the worst benefits dollar per dollar.
The State paid the Hay Group nearly $500,000 to consult on a new plan. Not fully funding the plan, without the 1% recommended increase and longevity, is a waste of resources. “We settled for the New Plan – by not funding the new pay plan, the Legislature would be taking a step back,” said Jane Carter, Executive Director of KOSE.
“Without an across the board increase, employees will fall below market before implementation. Ultimately it will cost the state more to bring employees to market that previously suggested,” said Jane Carter, Executive Director.
[Another issue is the funding for longevity pay. Statewide turnover rate for Kansas state classified employees is 13%. Longevity rewards experienced employees that remain in public service, and ultimately lowers costs. “The State is forcing employees to pay for the Legislature’s mistakes and our own increases. Scrapping longevity to use the money for the new pay plan isn’t fair,” said Bob Greenwood, a Human Services Specialist from Coffeyville.
State employees have always helped balance the budget. “Its time to cut the fat, not the muscle,” said Carter. Ochs explains it best, “Our work is more than work. It’s our lives. It’s our passion! We’re not going to just sit by and let our hard work be ignored.”
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Senate GOP: No state furloughs |
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Tuesday, 24 March 2009 |
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From the Capitol Journal March 20, 2009 The Senate president today said the Legislature should avoid ordering unpaid furloughs for state workers. However, Sen. Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, said that option should be available to state agency officials as they grapple with likely reductions in spending during the upcoming 2010 fiscal year. “That’s one mechanism that state agencies have to try to meet budget restrictions,” Morris said during a news conference. “We hope that we don’t have to do that.” The Senate Ways and Means Committee voted down two furlough proposals Thursday night while debating a proposed state budget for 2010. Committee members rejected a mandatory eight- and 12-day furlough. Sen. John Vratil, a Johnson County Republican on the budget committee, said the state could save $4 million daily by furloughing nonessential state workers. The tactic is being deployed in states throughout the nation to keep budgets in the black. California put all state employees on unpaid furlough for two days each month. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Ed Rendell says tens of thousands of state employees may have to take two unpaid furlough days. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is weighing a four-day furlough plan for state workers. On Thursday night, the Kansas Senate’s budget committee unanimously approved a 2010 budget bill that excluded furloughs. Sen. David Wysong, R-Mission Hills, proposed an amendment to the bill that would force state employees to take a dozen days off work. He also recommended an eight-day furlough program. Both failed to gain support among members of the Senate committee. Sen. Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka, said the concept hadn’t been analyzed by a committee of the Legislature to determine how it would impede public services managed by the state. “This has not been on the table,” Schmidt said. |
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Thursday, 12 March 2009 |
KOSE seeks wages, benefits From the Capitol Journal Heavy equipment operator Raymond McNeal took time off work Tuesday to press the flesh like high-tone lobbyists who frequent Statehouse hallways. McNeal, a Chanute resident employed by the Kansas Department of Transportation, was among dozens of participants at State Employee Advocacy Day sponsored by the 11,000-member Kansas Organization of State Employees. While urging legislators to support salary and benefit improvements for state workers, McNeal and several KDOT colleagues offered suggestions about where government spending might be curtailed. It would be productive, they said, to examine KDOT’s multiple layers of supervisory personnel, use of state-owned trucks by managers, and inefficient system of distributing supplies to district and area offices. “He agreed to take a look at it,” McNeal said after a meeting with Rep. Bill Otto, R-LeRoy. Still, KDOT employee David Franks, of Neosho County, said Otto wouldn’t budge on his opposition to a pay hike for state employees. KOSE members highlighted for legislators reports showing one in three state employees in Kansas was paid 25 percent less than market value. An analysis by the Pew Center found state workers had the worst benefit package in the nation. Perry resident Jean Martin, who works on foster care licensing at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said the 2009 Legislature should embrace the 1 percent pay hike recommended by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Martin realizes it is a tough sell because a state revenue shortfall is jeopardizing all requests for new spending in the coming 2010 fiscal year. “We’re just looked at as a budget cut rather than an asset for the state,” Martin said. She used a vacation day to personally deliver her message to Rep. Ann Mah, D-Topeka, and Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence. “We should cut the fat, not the muscle,” said Brenda Cervantes, of Topeka. “We’re the muscle.” Cervantes has been a state social worker for 23 years and currently works at the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex. Norton Correctional Facility corrections officers Jason Majors and Andy Nielsen came to Topeka to advocate for better compensation. Their four-hour trip to visit with House and Senate members also was about the future of their hometown. It is possible the state could close the Norton prison with a resulting loss of about 250 jobs. “If Norton closes,” Nielsen said, “there’s nothing for us. There are no other jobs.” |
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Thursday, 26 February 2009 |
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Another year has passed and we find ourselves defending our livelihoods again. For those of you that participated in Lobby Day last year, you saw the effects of putting a face to a number, and a family to a statistic. State legislators need to understand that what we ask is not something we merely want, it is a necessity for families across Kansas to survive. When we rallied for our longevity and COLA last year, it was not a gift from the legislature, it was a demand. This year at Lobby Day when we tell them to trim the fat and not the muscle, we will hold them accountable for balancing this disastrous budget in a responsible way. Through the events involving your paychecks and the thousands of phone calls you made, the proof that our voice is a loud one has been tested and found true once again. Now is the time to mobilize and march. Let this legislature know again that our voice is a loud one. KOSE Lobby Day Schedule KOSE Lobby Day Registration |
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