JACKSON - The Senate on Wednesday voted to remove civil service protection for employees in 10 state agencies, allowing the governor to fire workers at will.
Sen. Jack Gordon, D-Okolona, Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, said the bill gives Republican Gov. Haley Barbour the ability to streamline government.
"The governor needs this particular law to effectively reduce agencies," Gordon said. "He can reduce state employment to save money."
The bill lists the Division of Medicaid, the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Human Services, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, Mississippi Development Authority, the Department of Environmental Quality, Mississippi Employment Security Commission, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Finance and Administration and Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
All are agencies now considered part of the executive branch. There are many other agencies - including large ones such as education, transportation and health - left out of the bill.
Supporters said if the employees remained under the state personnel system, the firing of workers could take months because of termination hearings and appeals. Opponents said employees are losing job protection and due process.
The bill, which passed 33-16, was sought by Barbour as part of his plan to cut Mississippi's $709 million deficit in half during the fiscal year that starts July 1. Other reductions in the budget would come through efficiency measures such as changing the way universities purchase goods, he said.
Barbour said he wants to wipe out the deficit next year.
Gordon said Barbour could shave $25 million off state spending using the bill. The biggest expense in state government is employees' salaries and benefits.
Sen. Willie Simmons, D-Cleveland, said the bill was unfair to employees, especially those who have 15 to 20 years on the job.
"Don't you think we owe them due process or to an appeal to some degree?" said Simmons, who offered four amendments to the bill and all of them failed.
The bill, which moves to the House, would restore job protections to workers after a year.
Brenda Scott, president of the Mississippi Alliance of State Employees, said the bill was discriminatory because it only affected employees at some agencies.
Scott said the state Personnel Board was put in place to ensure employees wouldn't be fired without due process. "They don't understand what workers are doing out in the field every day. With the loss of jobs in the private sector, they are absorbing all of that extra work," Scott said.
She said 61.6 percent of the state employees make less than $29,000 a year. "On top of that, they're faced with whether or not they'll have a job the next day," Scott said. "I think it's a sad day in Mississippi."
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