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January 12, 2009
4-Day Workweek Proposed to Ease the State’s Deficit By A. E. VELEZ
A Queens assemblyman has proposed a four-day workweek for some state employees to help offset the $15 billion budget deficit faced by New York in 2009.
The assemblyman, Michael N. Gianaris, said on Sunday that even though his plan called for no pay cuts and would exclude education, transportation, public safety and hospital workers, it would save the state some $30 million a year in building maintenance and transportation costs.
Under the plan, all state agencies providing what Mr. Gianaris called nonessential services would change their working hours to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday instead of from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week. New York has about 237,000 full-time state employees, according to census figures.
Mr. Gianaris said electricity and fuel bills would be lower because agency offices would be dark and vehicles would not be driven on the fifth day.
Mr. Gianaris said the savings could prevent some of the severe service cuts anticipated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority ( http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/metropolitan_transportation_authority/index.html?inline=nyt-org ) as well as increases in express bus fares and fees for driver’s licenses.
Mr. Gianaris pointed out that Utah installed a mandatory four-day workweek for its state workers last summer. Utah, which has a state work force that is about 18 percent the size of New York’s, is expected to save $3 million annually.
Belleza
just a (transplanted) city girl 