As part of an effort to close a $12 billion deficit, on page 67 of his revised budget issued earlier today Governor Newsom proposes to negotiate $767 million of savings on salaries for state employees. But that’s just 1.7 percent of the $45 billion of spending on salaries and benefits that Newsom proposed in his initial budget, 18 percent more than current year spending. Even if Newsom gets the savings, the state will still spend 16 percent more on salaries and benefits than the current year. Whether it’s $44 billion or $45 billion, Newsom’s spending on state employees will rank as the third largest expenditure in the state’s $322 billion budget.
Newsom has been the most public-employee-union-friendly governor since Gray Davis, adding 45,000 positions to the Executive Branch to reach a current total of 255,000. I don’t know what all those people do — the state itself is not much of a service provider but rather more a vehicle for passing funds to other service providers such as schools, colleges, universities, counties, cities and hospitals — but I do know that public employee unions are Newsom’s largest financial supporters. Coincidence?
