On, July 12, the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) released a report that showed Iowa has 18,444 executive branch employees, which DAS claims is down 2,071 jobs from a year ago and the lowest level since 1994. However, Legislative Services Agency (LSA) numbers show a dramatically different picture.
According to the LSA’s web site, total state FTEs (full-time equivalent positions) increased from 38,434 in FY 1994 to 52,273 in FY 2009. That’s an increase of 13,839. While some of these positions are located within the Regents, it’s hard to believe that they were the cause of the entire increase.
Also, according to Iowa Workforce Development, state government employment in May, 2010 was 65,300. IWD counts actual employees rather than FTEs when calculating its total.
So, why the huge disparity between the numbers? DAS claims that its state job numbers represent executive-branch employment, the departments that come directly under the authority of the governor, such as the departments of human services, corrections and natural resources. The executive branch numbers exclude university jobs and jobs in the judicial and legislative branches.
LSA has yet to confirm the numbers produced by DAS. It is possible that it used assumptions that make the numbers look better than they really are. Also, the department admitted that the entire drop was due to over 2000 state employees opting to take the early retirement incentives. Of that amount, DOM, with Governor Culver’s agreement, has already announced they will allow agencies to rehire at least 1000 replacement employees.
The general fund appropriations for FY 1994 were $3.471 billion. The general fund appropriations (including one-time money) for FY 2010 were $6.015 billion. That is a difference of over $2.5 billion.
Even if the numbers produced by DAS are correct, that next question becomes, if there are the same amount of employees as FY 1994, why is the state budget over $2.5 billion more?
One possibility is that due to collective bargaining, salary and benefit costs have risen at a rapid rate. Another factor could be an increase in contractors who are not considered state employees. The Department of Human Services for instance contracts with hundreds of workers who are not considered state employees despite doing state government work.
Whatever the result, it will be very hard for DAS and the Governor to convince Iowans that state government has not become too big or does not have too many employees.
(Iowa State Representative Dwayne Alons newsletter -July 24, 2010)
