Editorial: City workers should heed request for pay freeze

No one will accuse Spokane Mayor Mary Verner of being hard-hearted about the prospect of laying off city employees, not after watching her struggle with her emotions on Monday as she delivered that part of her annual Statement of Conditions and Affairs.

But judging by her presentation to the City Council, as well as her pre-emptive actions of recent months, she’s not going to be anyone’s patsy in discussions with City Hall bargaining units.

City government is looking at a $12 million revenue shortfall in the 2011 budget, which must be adopted in the next couple of months. To minimize the pain, the mayor is asking city workers to give up expected pay raises and to accept changes in their health plans. Eliminating the pay raises would offset about $3 million of the shortfall – significant but far from sufficient.

The city’s dilemma is not unlike that being faced by private-sector workplaces all over the community. Revenues are down and cost-cutting steps are imperative, including layoffs, pay cuts and furloughs. Forgoing pay raises at City Hall may save the jobs of as many as 70 co-workers.

Moreover, if layoffs can be minimized, service reductions can be mitigated in areas that have been identified as most important to the public – public safety, infrastructure such as streets, economic growth, quality of life and administrative leadership. Of the 116 layoff notices sent out on the first of this month, more than two-thirds went to police and fire personnel.

The potential fallout would be worse, except the mayor ordered a hiring freeze and made $1.3 million in budget cuts last May. As a consequence, 50 general fund positions at City Hall are vacant already.

But if the employee groups turn the mayor down, she stands ready to impose a 9 percent across-the-board reduction that would result in 70 more vacancies.

Monday’s report was not entirely grim. The mayor happily outlined a number of positive city accomplishments in the past year, but she stressed the importance of keeping expectations in check in light of persistent economic difficulties. And she wisely warned against what budget writers call “bow wave” impacts, or the future cost of sustaining spending decisions made today.

We believe the mayor’s approach is prudent, and city workers ought to grant her requests.

But we would add a warning of our own. Situations like this one commonly lead to expectations that catch-up adjustments will be made in a couple of years when economic times improve.

For the economy to emerge healthily from this recession, government in general needs to shrink in size and scope. Ratcheting down public payrolls is not so much a concession as a recalibration.