Tennessee state workers rack up overtime

By Chas Sisk, The Tennessean

'TENNESSEAN' WATCHDOG REPORT

The state of Tennessee is looking to trim its payroll, but a Tennessean analysis of state salaries shows that more than 700 workers received more than $10,000 in overtime payments over the previous fiscal year, nearly as many as got similar payments two years ago.

Nearly 300 boosted their pay by more than 50 percent through overtime. Sixteen doubled their salaries by working extra hours.

The overtime payments come as state workers, as a whole, have received no salary increases for more than two years and as the overall number of workers on the state payroll has shrunk.

Those payments reflect the tension facing state budgeters as they try to cut back payroll while trying to maintain necessary services.

Tennessee departments and agencies are hoping to cut the state's payroll, outside of higher education, to about $2.86 billion in the current fiscal year. That would be more than $100 million less than the $2.98 billion that was budgeted for the 2008-09 fiscal year, which ended June 30.

Some of those reductions have already been made, as agencies were instructed last year to keep jobs vacant. Final payroll figures for the 2008-09 year should show that the state spent significantly less than it had budgeted, said Lola Potter, a spokeswoman for the Department of Finance and Administration.

"We've managed the state's payroll budget through this economy by addressing the problem as soon as state revenues began their steep decline and making additional reductions as the economy continued to suffer," David Goetz, the state's finance commissioner, said in a statement. "Over a year ago, we were able to give 1,521 state employees an attractive buyout package that treated employees respectfully and reduced the state's recurring budget by about $38 million. Since that time, we've worked to cut spending while protecting employees as much as possible, in part by eliminating vacant positions and looking for logical business solutions that would reduce personnel expenditures."

$38 million in overtime

The Tennessean analysis found that the state spent an equal amount, $38 million, on overtime for 46,834 workers in its database of workers.

The database covers most people who worked for the state last year, although it does not include people who left state government before the end of the fiscal year.

About one-quarter of the listed overtime was accrued in two agencies that require round-the-clock staffing, the Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities and the Division of Intellectual Disability Services. Nineteen of the top 20 earners in state government were medical doctors employed by the two agencies.

Now, those two agencies face further staffing reduction. Spokeswomen for both agencies said they did not expect job losses to affect services or overtime expenses. Both have been reducing their reliance on large institutional homes, a shift they said will eventually mean that fewer staffers will be needed to provide services.

Meanwhile, most state workers expect no raises in the coming fiscal year. Their last raise came July 1, 2007, Almous Austin, acting president of the Tennessee State Employees Association, said in a statement.

"As of February 2010, state employees will be experiencing the longest period in the state's history without a salary increase," he said. "The Tennessee State Employees Association is doing everything they can to help state employees keep their jobs and weather this recession."