Full Text: Gov. Ted Strickland, Ohio State of the State, January 28, 2009 | Ohio’s Economic Future & A New Plan for Education

(Source: Office of the Governor)

Governor Strickland’s 2009 State of the State address

I’d like to first recognize that one of Ohio’s great leaders, Senate President Bill Harris, was not able to be with us today. I know that he is in all of our thoughts and prayers, and we wish him a very speedy recovery.

Speaker Budish, Senate President Pro Tem Niehaus, Leader Batchelder and Leader Cafaro, Lt. Governor Fisher, statewide elected officials, members of the Cabinet, members of the General Assembly and the Supreme Court, distinguished guests, First Lady Frances Strickland, and my fellow Ohioans…

There was a time when Ohio State University played its football games on a dusty field surrounded by a humble collection of wooden bleachers.

Back then, OSU played teams from universities and small private colleges. They even scheduled a game against the soldiers from an army camp in Chillicothe.

Just after World War I came to an end there was a painful combination of high inflation and high unemployment that produced economic misery in Ohio and across the nation.

It was a truly frightening moment – hardly the time for a bold new idea.

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State of Ohio Using All the Tools to Cut Costs

An article today in the New York Times highlights some of the things employers are doing to trim budgets around the edges in hopes of saving a few jobs during this recession.  The State of Ohio is rolling one of the measures out to its own workforce.

From the Times:

Even as layoffs are reaching historic levels, some employers have found an alternative to slashing their work force. They’re nipping and tucking it instead.

A growing number of employers, hoping to avoid or limit layoffs, are introducing four-day workweeks, unpaid vacations and voluntary or enforced furloughs, along with wage freezes, pension cuts and flexible work schedules. These employers are still cutting labor costs, but hanging onto the labor.

What the state of Ohio has begun in some state agencies, and will make available in most others, is the voluntary furlough.  Known by the dreaded euphemism, “Voluntary Savings Program,” the VSP is nothing more than a voluntary furlough.  A furlough of course is when an employer says, don’t come to work for a particular period of time, we’re not going to pay you, but when the time period is up – come on back, you’ll still have a job.  It’s unpaid time off.

At the state, employees who wish to take some unpaid time off will be able to choose to take a recurring time period off without pay – such as one week per month for a given period of time – or take blocks of time.  The voluntary furloughs are subject to management approval, although management is not able to steer employees to the program.  State managers will be using the ability to provide full customer service in their business units as a major determinant in approving voluntary furlough requests.

The state doesn’t have a great deal of experience with the program.  It’s been one of the tools in the box for some years, and was used to some effect at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources during hard budget times some years ago.

One bad thing about it is its name: Voluntary Savings Program.  This is just more government doublespeak.  Why not call it the “Voluntary Furlough Program?”  That’s exactly what it is.  When I see Voluntary Savings Program, I think deferred compensation or maybe the Christmas Club at the local state credit union.

Here’s hoping the VSP helps out on the budget front.  It certainly doesn’t do accomplish anything on the ’say what you mean front.’