More than 325 state employees in the executive branch have received layoff notices, including 222 in the Department of Correction because of the planned closure of a prison.
The notices were announced Wednesday as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy scrambles to balance the two-year, $40.1 billion state budget by laying off as many as 6,500 state employees. Malloy's staff says that 6,500 is a "ballpark figure,'' and the precise total has not been calculated as the number-crunchers try to find various ways of plugging the budget gap that is now projected at about $700 million in the current fiscal year.
Malloy's staff concedes that widespread layoffs would have a direct impact on state services. Malloy's senior adviser, Roy Occhiogrosso, said it is "possible'' that there will be longer lines at the state Department of Motor Vehicles offices if the layoffs are enacted.
Malloy himself, though, says he will do everything he can to avoid the closing of parks and beaches during the hot summer months of July and August.
Many officials are hoping that the state employee unions can pull a rabbit out of the hat and avoid the layoffs by agreeing to the $1.6 billion savings-and-concession deal that had been negotiated by their union leaders. But under the complicated union rules, 43 percent of the rank-and-file members voted against the agreement and killed the deal. As such, Malloy said that he was moving forward with layoffs in order to balance the two-year, $40.1 billion budget.
As of Wednesday morning, the layoff notices are largely related to the scheduled shutdown of the Bergin Correctional Institution in Mansfield, which is at the site of the former Mansfield Training School. The last inmate is scheduled to leave by Friday, August 5, and the prison will be shuttered soon after. The layoff notices have gone to 191 prison guards, 13 supervisors, 9 educators who teach inmates, 6 clerical staff, and 3 health professionals, according to the governor's office.
Correction is the largest department in the state, by far, with about 6,500 employees. The next two closest agencies have about 3,800 employees each.
The numbers do not include any layoffs in the legislative and judicial branches, which have more autonomy than the agencies in the executive branch. The totals also do not include any potential layoffs at the University of Connecticut or the four universities in the Connecticut State University system.
Based on union regulations, some college professors are entitled to a notice of one year in advance of any layoff. As such, the savings could not be accomplished quickly in those cases.
The number of layoffs had been projected at 450 in the judicial branch, but the exact number of notices will be sent to the legislature on Friday when the revised state budget is due.