Recently in State Government Category

Source: Elsie B. Crowell and Mary E. Guy, Public Personnel Management, Volume 39 No. 1, Spring 2010
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Despite the original intent of civil service reform as set forth in the Pendleton Act of 1883, some states have implemented reforms that drastically alter the HR function as envisioned by early policymakers. The State of Florida offers an example of such reforms. This paper reports a study of how selected state employees perceive and interpret the outcome of Florida's 2001 civil service reform and privatized HR administrative processes. Respondents give mixed reports on the civil service reform but uniformly report that it has become more difficult to manage the HR function since it was outsourced.

Source: Donald J. Boyd and Lucy Dadayan, Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, Data Alert, August 10, 2010

Friday's July employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that total employment in the nation declined by 131,000 jobs. The decline was driven by a combination of very weak growth in the private sector (+71,000 jobs), a large decline in federal government employment (-154,000) primarily reflecting the departure of 143,000 temporary Census 2010 workers, and a decline of 48,000 in state and local government jobs.

Source: Gregory Fetterman, Meghan T. McCauley, MacKenzie Deal, and Marcy Karin, Twiga Foundation, Inc. and The Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College, Fall 2009

From the press release:
The Legal Framework for States as Employers-of-Choice in Workplace Flexibility: A Case Study of Arizona and Michigan examines the framework used to support workplace flexibility for state employees in Arizona and Michigan. After analyzing this framework, the report explores key observations about the experiences of these states that all employers can learn from, including:

* Workplace flexibility provides multiple benefits to states as employers, to state employees, and to the community;
* Workplace flexibility helps the government respond to problems as they arise;
* Successful model flexibility programs exist and can be replicated by other; and
* Leadership is a critical component of successful workplace for states as employers.
* Understanding the flexibility frameworks used by Arizona and Michigan as well as the elements that make these states employers-of-choice bolsters support for all employers to further develop workplace flexibility options that work for their work.

Source: Brad Sears, Nan Hunter, Christy Mallory, Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law & Public Policy, 2009

This report addresses whether there has been a widespread and persistent pattern of unconstitutional discrimination by state governments on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

This report is the result of research conducted during 2008 and 2009 by the Williams Institute. In addition, ten different law firms assisted with the project, with offices and attorneys from across the country. Also making contributions were scholars and experts from a number of academic disciplines, including history, political science, economics, sociology, and demography. The research resulted in a set of reports on employment law and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity for each of the fifty states, which are included as Appendices to this report. Based on these fifty state reports, plus additional studies conducted by the William Institute, literature reviews, and research projects conducted by the firms, we drafted and reviewed the following papers, presented here as a series of chapters summarizing the research findings. Based on this analysis, we conclude that:

- There is a widespread and persistent pattern of unconstitutional discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity against state government employees;

- There is no meaningful difference in the pattern and scope of employment discrimination against LGBT people by state governments compared to the private sector and other public sector employers; and

- The list of documented examples that we have compiled far under-represents the actual prevalence of employment discrimination against LGBT people by state and local governments.

Source: Deloitte Development LLC, December 16, 2009

From the summary:
State governments will face a number of significant and continuing challenges in 2010. From budget deficits to runaway Medicaid costs to infrastructure challenges, the new year is shaping up to be perhaps one of the most difficult in recent history. But there is some light at the end of the tunnel. 2010 is a significant election year, with 36 states and two territories holding elections - the greatest number in decades. This gubernatorial turnover will invariably bring new agendas representing change, and change creates opportunities. Deloitte's 2010 Industry Outlook for State Government looks ahead at the coming year and the most significant changes and opportunities state governments are likely to face.

Source: Capitol Ideas, Vol. 53 no. 1, January/February 2010
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States will undoubtedly face some major hurdles with reform of the nation's health care system.

Articles include:
- Hot Topic
The impact of health care reform on states will be more than just money.
- 10 Questions
Kathleen Sebelius talks about health care reform, Medicaid and children's insurance programs, and H1N1 preparedness.
- Timeline of Reform
States have taken action to supplement federal efforts at health care reform.
- Case Study
Four states have found ways to deal with coverage and care issues.
- Health Care Cost Drivers
Chronic disease and technology contribute to the rising cost of health care.
- Focus on Prevention
Various state programs focus on keeping people healthy.
- The Language of Reform
Dr. Frank Luntz shares insights into the debate about reform.
- Health Information Technology
Recovery Act dollars will help states incentivize progress in health IT.
- Straight Talk
Stakeholders share their opinions on important issues in reform.

Source: American City and County, November 19, 2009

Increased workloads, longer hours and strained resources caused by the recession have lowered federal, state and local government workers' morale, according to a survey by CareerBuilder.com. In the survey of more than 200 government employers, 25 percent rated their organization's current employee morale as low.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Press Release, CB09-161, October 26, 2009

At 8.9 million, education workers accounted for more than half of the 16.7 million state and local government full-time equivalent employees nationwide in 2008, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

State and local governments had a 1.4 percent increase in employment from 2007. Local governments -- which include counties, cities, townships, special districts and school districts -- accounted for 12.3 million full-time equivalent employees in 2008, compared with 4.4 million full-time equivalents that were employed by state governments.
See also:
Data Tables

Source: Tracy Bach, Vermont Law School Research Paper No. 10-11, August 3, 2009

From the abstract:
In Choices for Care: Consumer Choice and State Policymaking Courage Amid Medicaid's Shifting Entitlement to Long-Term Care, Professor Bach analyzes a leading state program intended to encourage the delivery of care in the home and community, thereby avoiding admission to nursing homes. Choices for Care, Vermont's Medicaid Demonstraion Waiver program, has clearly enabled more Vermonters to receive health care in their homes. After its first two years, it is seen as a model by other states and the federal government. But Bach questions the results. She argues that CFC is reshaping the landscape of long-term care providers, with resulting industry effects both intended, on nursing homes, and unintended, on home health agencies. Moreover, she observes that the initial success in shifting care away from institutions does not provide a clear answer to the cost trade-off between nursing home and home and community-based care. To date, Vermont has not shown that CFC has solved the overall long-term care spending problem. Likewise, the question of whether expanding home and community-based services for those on the eligibility edge successfully staves off their eventual admission to a nursing home is still an open one. Finally, the demographic question about the home care provider pool underlines the fact that the experience of CFC, as a very small state experiment, might be hard to replicate in other states. In this article, Bach puts the CFC results into the perspective of long-term health care system design.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, OEI-02-08-00210, September 2009

This report determines the extent to which selected States and localities have prepared for a medical surge in response to an influenza pandemic and have conducted and documented exercises that test their medical surge preparedness. We found that although the selected States and localities that we reviewed are making progress in preparing for a medical surge, more needs to be done to improve States' and localities' ability to respond to an influenza pandemic.