Breakdown of the 1500 State Employees Losing Their Jobs:

[blue neen]

http://www.wtae.com/sponsors/27120591/detail.html

Note: There are four pages.

1211 jobs will be lost in the Dept. of Public Welfare alone--mostly for Mental Health Services. I hope Tom Corbett doesn't claim to be a Christian--True Christians are not about hurting the poor and infirm while rewarding the rich.

69 jobs cut from Environmental Protection--just when we need them the most in PA.

[blue neen]

1. It looks like Pennsylvanians will be losing jobs in the private sector, too.

"At Pitt, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg called the proposed cuts "stunningly deep" and warned of a possible substantial increase in the in-state tuition paid by tens of thousands of students.

He said Pitt not only faces loss of 50 percent of its general fund appropriation, or $80 million, but also the elimination of $17 million in state aid to support programs in the health sciences, including the medical school, dental school, Western Psychiatric Institute and the Center for Public Health and Practice.

He said Pitt also stands to lose $9 million in biomedical research support from the tobacco settlement fund on top of more than $7.5 million in federal stimulus funding that expires this year.

Noting that Pitt attracts $800 million annually in research that supports 28,000 jobs directly or indirectly, he said the proposed budget was a "puzzling retreat" from the governor's own agenda of job creation."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11067/1130526-100.stm#ixzz1G4Qf5MXI

[old mark]

2. I used to work for the DPW. Corbett is talking of cutting 500+ jobs from the

PA state mental hospitals. They have had large numbers of people retire over the last five years, and have had several major hospitals close completely-Harrisburg, Allentown in the last 5 years and several more earlier. Some hospitals nave new-formed programs for forensic patients-patients who are convicted criminals but are not sane enough for the prison system. They are generally violent offenders and require specially trained staffers to work with them.
PA has been dealing with the mentally ill in it hospitals by releasing them to community based programs and group homes which depend on money from the counties where they are located. They generally have few staffers and little "treatment". I am sure they are being cut also, and many people will be back on their own, which is to say at risk of assault and arrest.

mark

[Divernan]

3. He's privatizing those mental health jobs

"The budget calls for eliminating 1,550 state jobs -- including 400 positions to be cut by privatizing forensic psychiatry jobs at state hospitals and another 100 through consolidating two treatment units at the New Castle Youth Development Center."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11068/1130622-454.stm#ixzz1G6FcgJCe

[old mark]

4. ...meaning they will be staffed by underpaid and poorly supervised people

who will leave at the first opportunity. I started at a PA state hospital as one of 12 new hires. After 2 years, I was the only one still working there. It is a very demanding and dangerous place to work, made much more so by the harrassment from the DPW management and political considerations. The forensic units are doubly so and require specialized training for staffers.

I see they still have a $78 million surplus, too...

He is just cutting programs he does not like, the old GOP game...

mark

[Divernan]

5. Privatization is what floats his boat - gets him big donors.

I worked with a group in the legislature trying to stop the privatization/closure of state centers for the mentally retarded. Ridge pushed for the privately operated group home approach. We documented many crimes against the residents of these privatized group "homes"- rape, theft, manslaughter, torture, poisoning, starvation, drowning, physical neglect of many kinds.

There was incredibly high employee turnover, and criminal background checks, though theoretically required, were not always done and never coordinated with other states. Also the Dept. of Public Welfare was charged with inspecting the homes for compliance with very weak regulations. The regs were written so that DPW had to inspect a small portion of homes each year. Guess what!?! They inspected the same places every year, and many places NEVER! Couldn't blame workers for leaving - it was far easier and safer working at McDonalds. The state centers had unionized, highly trained workers who made a career of caring for the mentally retarded. State centers also provided nurses, dentists, and medical specialists who knew how to approach, examine and treat the retarded. Under privatization, residents were dispersed to remote rural areas of the state - too far for many to have family members visit and keep an eye on things - and local medical/dental practitioners refused to treat them because they "scared the other patients in the waiting room."

[old mark]

7. I worked for one of those private agencies before I worked for the state.

Started at $6.25 per hour. Worked with various other staffers who;
Sold cocaine at work
Never showed up on Sundays-he was too busy chasing demons in downtown Pottstown, PA ( He swore he could actually see them.)
Stole money and food from the group homes (this was widespread)
Had severe psychiatric problems and explosive personality disorder.
Were extreme RWers (this was the state inspector, only one I saw in almost 2 years.)

Background checks were performed, but they were for child abuse ONLY...

It is all going to happen again, I have no doubt.

mark

[Divernan]

8. You testify, brother!

The abuse we uncovered and the indifference of Tom Ridge (now pimping for Big Oil) to it gave me terrible nightmares for the two years I worked on this problem.

There was one decent, terrific GOP state rep, Russ Fairchild who truly cared about the patients/residents and their families. He chaired a special bipartisan committee on mental health/mental retardation, trying to protect the state centers, and stood up to the GOP which had been paid off by the lobbyists for privatized care. I recall one political reception where he went up to speak to then Governor Tom Ridge. Ridge turned his back on Russ and cut him dead. Don't ever get between Tom Ridge and a lobbyist.

Russ was a Penn State grad and an infantry platoon commander in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Bronze Star and other combat citations. He was a gentleman and a statesman in the old-fashioned sense of the word. That made him a rarity in any political party. He did not run for re-election from the 85th District (Lewisburg) in 2010.

Senator Bob Casey, Jr. was then Auditor General and he and his staff also worked very hard on behalf of the mentally retarded and their families on this issue. But Ridge got his way and most of the residents were warehoused in the group "homes". God have mercy on their poor souls.

[old mark]

9. The place my wife and I worked was near Philly...It had been a single site with many buildings

covering several hundred acres. They decided to buy private homes throughout the area through third parties and convert them into group homes (Third parties so the neighbors would not know what was happening.), and eventually SOLD OFF 99% of the real estate they formerly occupied. Since the land had been DONATED many years ago, it was all profit.

mark

[1776Forever]

6. I will never forget down in Florida in 2001 Ole' Gov. Jebbie Bush did this:

Erin Maloney
University Wire
02-01-2001

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-40956733.html

(Independent Florida Alligator) (U-WIRE) GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida labor unions are criticizing a recent proposal by Gov. Jeb Bush to overhaul the state employment system, placing greater emphasis on merit-based incentives and bonuses, giving preference to performance over seniority and making it easier to hire and fire state employees.

Doug Martin, communications director for the Florida branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said Bush's plan is a cover-up to make it easier to fire employees and meet his pay raise commitments.

.......

My husband and I were seated at a Denny's counter when I read the newspaper headline that was in front of us on the counter. It said Jeb Bush to lay off thousands of State Workers. When I said that the lady seated next to me said, "Yes I am one of them". I asked her about it and she said she was two years away from retirement and that it had hit her like a brick. So remember that this started a long time ago by "one of the worst", the man that President Obama has said was an educational "hero" Jeb Bush! This just shows there is a hell of lot at stake here and this is labor's last stand!