The Furlough Day Smoke and Mirror Scheme

Like many states Maryland is facing a serious financial crisis that is going to require hard choices not just symbolic gestures. Programs need to be cut. Departments need to be merged. A new crop of legislators need to be elected to end this 20th Century way of doing business.

One idea of using furlough days to help trim the budget is nothing more than band-aid on a cut that needs stitches. However, it is so nice for the governor and other elected officials to take furlough days along with state employees to show solidarity. It does trim the budget somewhat yet not quite enough to make a serious difference and there is still the unintended consequence shooting your self in the foot.

Essentially they are cutting an employee's pay. Which in turn reduces how much they pay income tax. They have also targeted employees who are contracted through grants. Many of these are not career state employees, they are hired for a purpose directed through an agreement to receive a grant, donation, or whatever source of funding that project received. Many of these people work in universities, colleges, for the state, or local counties and municipalities. The unintended consequence could place these grants in jeopardy if the money is not spent as spelled out in the fine print.

An example would be Jane was hired to do a specific task through a grant of $200,000 from DHS, let's say 4 years at $50,000 per year is what she signs in her contract. This money is set aside specifically to pay her. Jane is not a career state employee. Yet, in the great wisdom of our governor, she is furloughed for 10 days which is roughly $2,083.00. This is in violation of her contract, it is also in violation of the amount that the state agreed to in the terms of the grant.

This situation causes several concerns. Are there penalties for changing the contract? Could the grant funding be pulled if the state does this to people hired through grants? Could this affect future grants the state tries to get through this entity?

The other issue is County governments and local municipalities are looking at doing the same thing. Certainly caution is always the best avenue and hopefully these issues have been vetted. It certainly would be moronic if these decisions are made only to find out it is going to cost us more money in legal fees, penalties, or the loss of the income because we were trying to save a few bucks.