By Chris Fitzsimon
UNC system President Erskine Bowles wants the General Assembly to give him the authority to furlough university employees, a proposal that sent shudders through state government circles last week, a stark reminder of how bad the state budget crisis could become.
Gov. Beverly Perdue has so far avoided using the “f†word, and legislative leaders have resisted too, preferring to talk about hiring freezes and abolishing vacant positions to save money instead of forcing state workers to take days off without pay.
Recent history makes it likely that Bowles’ plea for furlough authority is about more than getting what he calls “another tool in the toolbox†to help the university system handle the significant budget cuts that are coming.
Bowles has been trying since he became UNC president to create a personnel system at UNC that is separate from the system in the rest of state government. He first brought up the idea in 2006 after it was proposed by an advisory committee he appointed.
The idea didn’t get very far after university employees made it clear they were leery of giving up their rights and protections under the State Personnel Act. Faculty members not covered by the act spoke out against Bowles’ plan too in support of rank-and-file staff members.
Bowles appointed another task force the next year with the explicit mission to come up with ways that the university system could have more authority in human-resources decisions and management. The task force obliged, and in 2008 called on the General Assembly to pass legislation giving UNC officials more flexibility in personnel decisions, again sparking concern among university workers.
State lawmakers told Bowles that year that the proposal was too complicated to consider in the summer short session, and Bowles didn’t press the matter. Then the economy collapsed and former Gov. Mike Easley called for budget reductions in all state agencies, including the university.
Gov. Perdue has called for deeper cuts as the budget situation has worsened, prompting Bowles to ask for furlough authority, something no other state agency head currently has or has asked for.
Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, a longtime supporter of UNC, appears ready to give Bowles and chancellors the go ahead to send people home without pay, telling the News & Observer that, “We should not be restricting their choices at a time like this.â€
The head of a faculty group at UNC says some staff members would take a pay cut to protect low-wage workers from layoffs. But Bowles wants to make that decision for UNC employees, regardless of how similar workers are treated in the rest of state government.
Furloughs of state employees may make sense as a last resort to balance the budget, though there are plenty of other alternatives, including tapping the state’s savings account and using money from the federal stimulus package in the current fiscal year.
State lawmakers could use a combination of federal stimulus money, reasonable cuts and progressive revenue increases to avoid layoffs or furloughs in next year’s budget.
If any state workers are furloughed, that decision needs to come from the governor as part of her emergency budget powers or the General Assembly in the legislation authorizing next year’s spending.
Giving Bowles the authority to lay people off is not only premature, it’s the first step toward allowing the university system to operate outside the rest of state government, something that Bowles and other UNC officials have long sought.
The perils of giving UNC special treatment are laid out comprehensively in an exhaustive study of university governance published in 2006 by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research. The report says that claims by university officials that the current personnel system is too cumbersome and restrictive also can be made by every other state agency.
If there’s a problem with the State Personnel Act, lawmakers ought to debate it and fix it for everybody if it needs modification. There’s no rationale for singling UNC out, no matter how much its leaders and wealthy supporters want special treatment.
Chris Fitzsimon is the director of NC Policy Watch.
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