Payrolls may have increased further had it not been for the significant number of layoffs of government workers. The continued layoffs are notable, California has been cutting positions for years and moving others to part-time only. As CivSource reported previously, the state has already laid off tens of thousands of people.

State payroll accounts for about $18 billion of the overall budget, a figure which successive governors have been trying to keep in check for decades. Forced furloughs were the most recent way Governors tried to save money. However, as state budget observers have noted recently, furloughs are only a temporary and largely ineffective budget solution.

According to McClatchy, the largest increases came at the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Motor Vehicles with state workers in those offices clearing salaries well above $500k.

Payroll increases are a double edge sword for states simultaneously looking for ways to cut the budget while fostering economic growth. The McClatchy account noted that the increases contributed, “$140 million in wages to the Sacramento economy in 2011, contributing to a budding recovery. Previous forced furloughs dampened much of the city’s economic activity. Despite this, state workers are being thrust into the limelight over high salaries during tough economic times. Public workers salaries are often the subject of criticism from those that dislike the idea of government jobs.

The vote came after weeks of protest from Democrats in the statehouse involving walk outs and amendments designed to slow down or derail the bill. However, after several days of protest, the Democrats eventually conceded and allowed the vote to go forward. The vote in the Senate will happen sometime late next week after what is expected to be several more days of protest from the public and Democratic lawmakers alike.

Just under half of states are right-to-work states. After the 2010 elections brought in a swath of anti-union Governors, several states – most notably Wisconsin and Ohio passed measures to strip union rights. The measures resulted in significant public backlash including successful recall elections in Wisconsin and a new recall action against the Governor.

However, some Governors, specifically Rick Snyder of Michigan have said publically that they do not think pushing right-to-work is worth the fights seen in other states. Snyder has said that while he sides with those pushing legislation, he doesn’t think it makes sense to push at this juncture. Indiana, is home to some of the strongest union forces in the country and they are expected to use this time between votes to press hard on derailing the measure in the Senate.

The Network’s objectives include identifying and supporting key industry clusters statewide. Once these clusters are realized, they will work with business leaders to foster innovation, create and retain jobs. The Network will also offer job training programs to grow a workforce that is prepared to work in these new fields.

State officials also noted that the Network will be tasked with providing performance metrics that track its overall impact throughout Colorado.

Ajay Menon the state’s first Chief Innovation Officer, is leading COIN and will volunteer 20 hours a week for the state in addition to his full-time job as Dean of the College of Business at Colorado State University. COIN will initially be housed within the state’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade. Funding for COIN will come from private donors; no state money will be used.

“The Colorado Innovation Network is a roadmap for making Colorado the best state for innovation and where every road must lead to new jobs,” Hickenlooper said. “We’ll work statewide with industry leaders to build a business environment which promotes innovative practices, creates jobs and grows our economy.”

The recent recession took a significant toll on the finances of state and local governments, and despite the recent economic uptick, many government agencies are still struggling to recover.

As agencies take steps to correct their financial problems, they will likely consider cutting programs and services that are popular in local communities. Instead, agencies could be taking a simple step that would save them money, retain valuable programs and keep workers happy.

That simple step is to enhance their teleworking programs.

The benefits of teleworking to the individual employee are clear – reduced commuting time can give you back 200 hours per year or more to devote to your work and your family – but the benefits to government agencies are similarly substantial.

Increased teleworking would help government agencies save money by reducing the high costs associated with providing office services. The combined costs of services such as real estate, heating and cooling, telecom supplies and other expenses can be close to $10,000 per employee annually in some agencies and corporations.

Teleworking programs help government agencies maximize worker productivity, especially during unforeseen circumstances. Consider the 2011 “Snowpocalypse” that shut down government offices in the Atlanta and Washington, D.C. areas, or the Hurricane Rita office closures in Texas. The ability to work from home during those weather issues could have saved the states millions of dollars from lost productivity.

Additionally, the environmental benefits of increased teleworking benefit the entire community – according to a recent report from Telework Exchange, if all telework-eligible federal employees worked at home two days per week, they would collectively save $3.8 billion in commuting costs; if the entire eligible U.S. workforce did the same, the savings would rise to $215 billion, and 143 million tons of pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions would be avoided.

Even if your job doesn’t lend itself to working from home, you can still stand to gain from increased telecommuting. Less commuters on the road means less traffic overall – giving non-teleworkers more time at the office or home with their families.

Without a doubt, the task of running a more complex remote management system for teleworkers could be daunting for any IT team. But with the right IT equipment in place, technical issues can be dealt with remotely just as easily as issues inside the office. The key is to understand that every remote worker is different – some job functions might command little more than a notebook where others might require additional computing, printing, voice, and other services. A “one-size-fits-all” teleworking package that lacks flexibility could miss out on the expected benefits of efficiency and cost savings.

The effort at the state and local levels required to create this flexible telework program, however, is miniscule compared to the resulting cost savings that each agency will consequentially realize. Agencies should take a serious look at ways to equip their employees to work from home as a means of addressing budget shortfalls and making the best use of their time, money and energy.

Under SSBCI, all states are offered the opportunity to apply for federal funds for state-run programs that partner with private lenders to increase the amount of credit available to small businesses. States must show that a minimum of $10 in new private lending will result from every $1 in federal funding.

Connecticut’s plan will use its $13.3 million in SSBCI funding to support the Capital Access Program (CAP), which provides loan portfolio insurance to encourage private financial institutions to lend to creditworthy small businesses. The state expects that CAP will foster more than $133 million in additional small business lending statewide.

Missouri’s SSBCI plan dedicates $16.9 million of the funding to establish hi-tech Missouri IDEA Seed and Venture Capital Funds (IDEA Funds). The Missouri IDEA Funds support businesses in science and technology.
The funds provide financing to eligible businesses through the four stages of venture growth: (1) pre-seed capital stage financing; (2) seed capital stage financing; (3) venture capital stage financing; and (4) expansion stage debt. The state will also put $10 million of SSBCI funding into the Grow Missouri Loan Participation Fund to support business in industrial, commercial, agricultural, and recreational sectors. Grow Missouri provides loans of up to $3 million to businesses with under 500 employees to help attract new enterprises and expand existing companies. The state expects the new funding to lead to more than $269 million in new private lending statewide.

According to a statement from the Governor, a workers compensation workgroup was created to gather feedback from both business and labor which led to the creation of the bill. The state hopes that the network will reduce the overall taxpayer burden from workers compensation claims while still providing a high quality standard of care for injured workers.

Under the terms of the bill, doctors and providers allowed in the network will be required to meet a certain standard of care and use best practices to prevent disability, reduce loss of family income, and lower labor and insurance costs for employers. Injured workers will be able to choose their doctor from those included in the statewide network.

“We know we need to help more workers return to good health and back on the job after an injury, as well as reduce costs for our taxpayers and businesses,” Governor Gregoire said. “This bill does both. It improves outcomes for our employees, while saving more than $200 million over the next four years.”

Senator Robert Marshall, House Speaker Robert Gilligan are sponsoring the bill which will expand the number and types of industries that qualify for the tax credit. The bill will also increase the size of the overall incentive and pushes companies to hire now in order to foster immediate growth. All sizes of businesses will be eligible for the credit if they meet the job creation requirements.

Under the terms of the bill, the Blue Collar Jobs Tax Credit would become permanent instead of sunsetting after 10 years. The tax credit incentive will increase by $100 for every qualifying  job and qualifying business investment. In addition, the bill aims to diversify the state’s economy by encouraging the technology industry and sustainable businesses to take part in the program. Businesses that manufacture clean-energy systems will receive 50% higher income tax credits and a lower gross receipts tax rate through the new program.

“We want to support existing employers’ efforts to expand here in Delaware. We want to keep attracting more businesses to make our state their home. This proposal would provide some help with both,” Governor Markell said of the bill. “This effort comes from months of conversations with businesses about how we could be a better partner in building their workforce. We want what they want – more people being able to say to their families that they are back to work.”

According to results of a recent survey, many state CIOs foresee a continued shirking of their state’s IT workforce. The study builds on an issue that gained force a few years ago, when state CIOs had offered anecdotal evidence that states could face a potential shortage of government IT workers in the near future due to anticipated retirements of baby boomers and a waning interest in government IT employment from a younger generation.

The January report, “State IT Workforce: Under Pressure” surveyed forty-two states, finding that nearly two-thirds of state CIOs will have to reduce IT staff in the short-term. At the same time as hiring freezes and the elimination of vacant positions, state CIOs also worry about upcoming retirements and a continued inability to attract top young talent. Nearly a quarter of survey respondents said they predict one-quarter to one-third of their employees will be eligible to retire within the next five years.

“The inevitable wave of baby boomers that will leave the state workforce in the next five years has only compounded the challenges that exist for recruitment and retention of highly qualified IT personnel,” Chad Grant, NASCIO policy analyst and author of the study, said in a statement.

Despite the budget problems facing nearly every state, the recession has had some positive effects: a majority of state CIOs said it has caused many state workers to postpone retirement. And continuing high unemployment has made entry-level positions slightly more attractive, despite nearly 80 percent of state CIOs confirming that state salary rates and pay grade structures presenting a great challenge in attracting and retaining talent.

NASCIO executive director Doug Robinson said, “retirements from of an aging state IT workforce have been a looming issue for the majority of the states and a comparison of NASCIO’s September 2007 findings and our current survey highlights that the recession has only delayed this inevitable tsunami of turnover.”

The top five skills and disciplines presenting the greatest challenge for state CIOs to fill included security, project management, architecture, application and mobile application development and analysis/design.

To read the report in its entirety, click here.

“Bill Rogers has the innovation, technical expertise and leadership abilities to lead the Department of Information Technology,” Governor Lynch said of Rogers’ nomination. “The department will play an important role in state government as we continue to find ways to use technology to better deliver services to the people of New Hampshire.”

DoIT is in charge of developing a strategic vision and provide planning for the state’s IT assets. The department also supplies enterprise services, as well as technical, operational, infrastructure, security services, and e-government Web development services.

The state legislature had only created the position in 2008 – and they have yet to apportion money for a salary. So Gov. Lynch has named Rogers as interim commissioner of DIT, pending legislative approval of a salary level.

Rogers received his bachelor’s degree information systems management and computer science from the University of Maryland. He received his master’s in business administration from Central Michigan University.

First established by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, the VPP program is managed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). FHWA is looking for innovative strategies being considered across the country to reduce congestion. To incentivize state and local transportation officials, grants have been made available to those who demonstrate progress in easing congestion.

In 2003, the Texas Transportation Institute estimated that the 85 largest metropolitan areas experienced 3.7 billion vehicle-hours of delay, resulting in 2.3 billion gallons in wasted fuel and a congestion cost of $63 billion. And traffic volumes are projected to continue growing. The volume of freight movement alone is forecast to nearly double by 2020, FHWA predicts.

Value pricing encompasses a variety of strategies to manage congestion on highways, including tolling of highway facilities through congestion pricing, as well as other strategies that do not involve tolls, such as mileage-based car insurance and parking pricing.

The statutory requirements of the VPP program stipulate that FHWA may enter into cooperative agreements with up to 15 State or local governments or other public authorities to establish, maintain, and monitor VPP programs, each including an unlimited number of projects.

According to an entry in the Federal Register, FHWA prefers that local projects be submitted through state departments of transportation so that other projects in the state can be combined and count as only one of the fifteen allowable projects.

The congestion pricing concept of charging variable fees based upon usage and assessing relatively higher prices for travel during peak periods is the same as that used in many other sectors of the economy to respond to peak-use demands, FHWA officials maintain. For example, airlines, hotels, and electricity companies often charge more at peak periods than at non-peak periods.