Post #99 Bribing Maryland State Employees to quit

State employees have all the leverage and AFSCME has none.

Last week Governor Moore announced his plan to convince state employees to accept a buyout. The plan calls for $20,000 for each state employee who takes the offer plus an additional $300 for each year they have worked for the state, and six months of state paid health care benefits. The deadline to apply is August 4^th.

But with any offer like this there's some fine printing that the employee must have 24 months of service, be a full-time employee and cannot have already submitted a letter of resignation or application for retirement. There is also 52-page list of classifications and they're not eligible to apply. I did the math, and it comes to almost 1700 jobs.

So, congratulations, we're looking to cut state employees but there's so many exceptions to this program, it's more of a joke than serious cutting. Maybe some of the classifications on that 52-page list would go a long way towards cutting the cost of state government by allowing those employees to accept a buyout. Years ago, when my wife was a state employee and in 2011 when Governor Martin O'Malley offered a buyout, she was one of the ones that could not take the buyout. The theory is if they buy out now, they cut expenses to save money going forward.

For years AFSCME and its leader Patrick Moran, the state employee’s union chief has worked hand in hand with democratic governors. Moran was not a fan of former governor Larry Hogan disparaging him at every opportunity he could even though Hogan was very generous with state employees and protecting their pension. But I don't think he had much leverage in this. The state teacher’s union is much more powerful than AFSCME.

There are a few things that state employees really need to think about before accepting this buyout. You have all the leverage. It's 17 months until Election Day and Wes Moore isn't going to fire state employees. Before you think about submitting your buy out there are two things you should do. First, see your doctor for a complete checkup. You don't want to leave state government and a couple months later have a health care crisis. Second, you should talk with your financial advisors and ask them about your financial security down the road 5-10 years from now.

State Senate Republicans have rightly criticized Governor Moore for being much too late to deal with this problem. During the last General Assembly session, Senator JB Jennings had talked about implementing a hiring freeze, but the governor rejected this idea. Instead, the plan of Governor Moore and General Assembly democratic leaders was more new taxes and fees to balance the budget. Senate Republicans in a Friday presser referred to this as a short-term fix that won't attract enough participation from the highest earning state employees because the incentive pay is too low. They are right, almost 1700 people with high paying jobs can't accept this buyout.

But state employees may not be anxious to take this buy out. In 2011, under Governor O'Malley, the state of Maryland took away retirees’ prescription drug coverage forcing them to go on Medicare once they turned 65. Governor Moore and democratic leaders in 2024 and 2025 had opportunities to reinstate the prescription drug coverage benefit for retirees. They declined because they said if they kept the benefit, it could endanger the state's AAA bond rating. In May, Moody's lowered the state's AAA bond rating.

Good benefits encourage you to stay and retire later. Bad retirement benefits convince you to stay longer because you still have those benefits as long as you're working.