Nebraska’s Department of Revenue laid off 11 employees Monday and moved to shutter a satellite office, a state official and the head of the state’s largest public employees union confirmed.
Six Department of Revenue employees were laid off in Lincoln, while at least five workers were laid off in Scottsbluff, the western Nebraska city where the department will close its satellite office, according to the Nebraska Association of Public Employees.
The cuts amount to about 2.7% of the Department of Revenue’s workforce, which included 409 employees as of July.
The move marks the largest and latest round of state layoffs in recent weeks, said Justin Hubly, the union’s executive director, who said the state had also laid off two Military Department employees and at least four workers at the Office of the Chief Information Officer in the past two months.
The layoffs come as Republican Gov. Jim Pillen has signaled plans to seek an unprecedented $500 million, 10% cut to the state’s general fund budget next year as the state faces a $300 million-plus budget shortfall, largely thanks to federal income tax cuts included in President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill that will apply at the state level too.
Some of the state employees who have been laid off in recent weeks, including those cut Monday, will ultimately retain jobs with the state, Hubly said. NAPE’s contract with the state gives laid-off union members and other employees covered by the contract the right to fill vacant positions elsewhere in state government, he said.
But Hubly raised concerns over Pillen’s administration’s handling of the layoffs — and in particular questioned the logic of Monday’s layoffs, which targeted Department of Revenue agents who collect taxes from delinquent income taxpayers.
“Wouldn’t we want people collecting delinquent taxes if we’re having budgetary issues?” he said.
Hubly and a Democratic lawmaker who serves on the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee raised alarm over the executive branch’s move to cut employees whose positions are funded by the budget the governor signed into law earlier this year.
“Our contract says that they should do everything to avoid a (reduction in force) and there needs to be a reason,” Hubly said. “And the reason that’s being cited to me are these hypothetical budget cuts that the governor is asking for the Legislature to do.
“But … the Legislature is not in session. The budget has not been cut. So I’m concerned, right now, that we are cutting funded positions in preparation to cut the budget.”
Lee Will, Nebraska’s chief operating officer and a member of Pillen’s cabinet, confirmed and defended the move, citing low foot and call traffic at the Scottsbluff office.
He also said the budget lawmakers approved “is really not dictated on a position-by-position basis,” and the executive branch is within its rights to identify efficiencies.
“Not every agency should spend every penny that they’re appropriated,” Will said. “They should always be looking at ways of trimming costs and being more efficient. And I think that’s an expectation of Nebraskans at large, as well, or of all government, frankly.”
Will also suggest more state layoffs could be yet to come. He said state agencies will “constantly look at how many state employees or public servants we need” while ensuring laid-off employees aren’t effectively replaced by pricier contractors, which Pillen’s administration has also sought to cut.
“We’re just making business decisions at this point,” he said.
Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh said the move is particularly troubling in light of Pillen’s executive order last month that directed a state employee to send $20 million more than lawmakers earmarked for property tax relief back to local school districts and other tax-collecting subdivisions in a move critics called “blatantly unconstitutional.”
“It is very concerning that, on one hand, he’s taking $20 million that he has no constitutional authority to take and putting it towards property tax relief,” she said. “On the other hand, he’s having state agencies eliminate jobs … because of budget cuts that we are anticipating in the coming year. It doesn’t make any sense.
“It’s not about efficiencies. It’s about giving the governor his property tax relief, for himself, yet again on the backs of Nebraskans, including state employees that are public servants.”
Sen. Rob Clements, a Republican from Elmwood, dismissed the concerns raised by Hubly and Cavanaugh and endorsed the administration’s move.
“Yeah, there’s positions that are funded — but not efficiently,” he said. “I’m for efficiency.”
Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.com. On Twitter @andrewwegley
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