Karen Handel learns that reporters can run, but can’t hide
Karen Handel (far right) inside the decor-challenged offices of the AJC.
If you’re hunting news reporters, it’s only natural to stalk their lairs – to sneak up on them while they’re still slightly lethargic from digesting a large meal of Carol Porter.
So Karen Handel and her two guides this afternoon made a rare and stealthy entrance into press row at the state Capitol, a line of offices where grown adults go to shake off every childhood lecture about neatness.
The Republican candidate for governor grabbed a reporter’s chair in the AJC enclave and started talking. Shannon McCaffery with the Associated Press took the next seat. In came Walter Jones with Morris News Service, pad in hand. Lori Geary of WSB-TV brought a camera man to fill the front door. Tom Baxter of InsiderAdvantage and Travis Fain of the Macon Telegraph rounded out the crowd.
Bingo. Instant news conference.
Handel announced that her solution to the state’s budget crisis is to recognize “the new normal” and slice Georgia’s state workforce by 10 percent – exempting teachers, State Patrol officers and others who keep the bad guys in line.
It would save $400 million – not enough to close the $1.2 billion budget gap for 2011. And it would take more than a few months to reach that 10 percent mark, she conceded. Here are some of her details:
– Permanent elimination of 10% of state government positions for FY2011 budget year – excluding teachers and public safety officers (State Patrol, GBI, etc.). This would save approximately $404 million and reduce the workforce by approximately 7,800 employees.
– Keep permanent the Governor’s budget savings to date achieved through attrition, resignations, and retirements. According to the State Personnel Administration, this represents nearly 5% of the workforce and equals an additional $190 million in savings.
–Reorganize agencies to reduce management layers and achieve supervisor/ employee ratio of 8 or 9 employees to 1 supervisor. Too often employees are promoted to supervisor or manager positions because of length of service rather than a reflection of management responsibilities.
–Reform state salary and benefits by moving state employees to “paid time off” (or PTO) and limited leave carry-over rather than the current accrual system, which allows employees to “bank” significant amounts of sick, compensatory, and vacation time that is then used to “bridge” to retirement or is cashed-in upon departure/retirement.
Handel’s get-’em-where-they-live tactic was immediately mimicked by a Republican rival for governor, state Rep. Austin Scott of Tifton, who held a mini-press conference in AP headquarters. In rebuttal, Scott said Handel was overestimating the savings from a 10 percent workforce reduction.
But Scott, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, said lawmakers were indeed looking at the elimination of whole sections of agencies within state departments.
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68 comments Add your comment
woodshed guy
February 26th, 2010
8:46 am
The ox has, so I have read, three advanced degrees in Greek, religion and something else. I forget what. Now show me the relationship between Ox and a college education.
Mike
February 26th, 2010
8:49 am
Scott,
Your ignorance is showing. Read and learn:
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=463845
Just a taxpayer
February 26th, 2010
9:00 am
You can only cut so much until businesses don’t want to locate or be in your state. There is a balance between what we want government to provide and the taxes we have to pay to get them. Businesses should be one of the tax payers to our infrastructure needs.
blacksheep
February 26th, 2010
10:25 am
Hey, I dislike Karen Handel as much as the next person, but are you guys serious when you say she shouldn’t be governor because she’s menopausal? For real?
State Cuts
February 26th, 2010
11:35 am
I am all for cutting the size of government(Politicians), but it must be done correctly. Do not layoff employees… examine the salaries of some of the fat cats. Take into account all state employees making $100,000 + per year and re-negotiate their position and salary. Head of Congress center is making $400,000+. Start there, and not with Joe the forester just trying to feed his family.
Base
February 26th, 2010
1:06 pm
Slash and burn the Repub way of management.
why not
February 26th, 2010
1:09 pm
David Poythress is the best candidate for governor. Will we allow these other nimwits to win this election because of money? If we do that, we deserve what we get. Please people look at his record. He has even said that he won’t take a salary until unemployment falls below 7%. What do you need to hear? Stop voting for crooks!
Joan Andrews
February 26th, 2010
2:57 pm
Austin Scott plan for education makes more sense to me than any of the other candidates. Karen Handel would just be another Sonny Pukedue! Eric Johnson, already has almost all of Pukedue old staff “Pre -School Children” on it” and I think maybe the Scott campaign may just have one of Pukedue former employees as I can see. PUKEDUE as I like to call him could not leave office quick enough with all those children running it to satisfy me! just think a year from now day care will end in the governors office and Pukedue will be a has been.
Republican Dawg
February 26th, 2010
2:58 pm
Talk about a deparate politician! If Karen Handel is stating an idea, you know anouther candidate actually came up with the idea. The only way wanna-bes like Handel or Scott can get coverage is by catching the media off guard when the real candiates aren’t available for coverage.
GaDeptofRevenueWho
February 26th, 2010
5:33 pm
THE GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE ALREADY HAS A 30 plus, MINUTE WAITING TIME WHEN YOU TRY TO CALL THEM. THEY ARE ALREADY SO BACKLOGGED THAT IT IS PITIFUL AND AIKEN TO WHAT YOU WOULD SEE IN A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY.
NO WONDER GOVERNOR PERDUE CAN’T BALANCE HIS THIRD WORLD BUDGET…
Mrs. Glenn Richardson
February 26th, 2010
8:00 pm
At least I’m better off than I was 4 years ago.
Wally
February 27th, 2010
1:58 am
Obviously, Ms. Handel is not aware of the new, new retirement system (we had a new retirement system before this one and then there is the old one) that went into affect this year for state employees. The average state employee pay is very low. I have worked in both the private sector and government sector. She fired 34 employees and I believe that it was almost as soon as you took her office. Also there were four others that left. I still do not believe that gives them the right not to take furlough daysl.
She says that Georgia employees are protected which means you cannot fire them. Georgia is an at will state now and state employees are no longer protected by the Merit System. There may be a very few but most have retired or are very close to retirement.
Can anyone remember when a state employee actually got a reasonable cost of living raise and that was way before this budge disaster. Then for every raise of of two and half percent or one percent the insurance would go up five, seven, or 10 percent. The state went to Ga. Gain – pay for performance which was a joke which was under Gov. Zell Miller. It worked to the state’s advantage not the employees.
GDOT crews keeping the roadways clear in bad weather are some of the lowest paid employees in the state but they are very dedicated workers. People even complained that they did not do a good enouogh job.
All people want to do is complain.
OUR RIGHTS ARE BEING TAKING AWAY FROM US EVERY DAY AND NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE, THE CAP AND TRADE BILL, ETC.. THE SUPREME COURT GIVING THE RIGHT TO THE LOBBYIST THE RIGHT TO GIVE AS MUCH MONEY AS THEY WANT TO ANYONE RUNNING IN AN ELECTION. THANK GOODNESS CONGRESS IS TO PASS A BILL TOO MAKE THEM DECLARE IT WITHIN 24 HOURS TO MAKE SURE THAT IT WAS ACTUALLY FROM THIS COUNTRY. I DO NOT SMOKE BUT I THINK THAT IT WAS WRONG TO TELL AN OWNER OF A RESTUARANT THAT HE COULD NOT ALLOW SMOKING IN HIS BUILDING. IF I DID NOT WANT TO GO THERE I DID NOT TO THERE. IT JUST KEEPS ON. I CAN UNDERSTAND GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS BUT A MAN’S BUSINESS. IT WAS SIGN OF WHAT WAS TO COME. SORRY I GOT A LITTLE OFF THE SUBJECT BUT THINGS ARE JUST GETTING OUT OF HAND.
State revenue could not even get the refunds out because they were understaffed and how much did that cost. A lot more than if they had been enough employees.
Ms. Handel reminds me of another female. I was glad to see that she was running and she was at the top of my list as some one else was but she definitely lost my respect with this interview. Any situation needs to be assessed after you are in office and have had time to get a handle on things.Please excuse the pun. DOES SHE NOT REALIZE THE STATE EMPLOYEES VOTE , THEIR FRIENDS VOTE, AND THEIR RELATIVES VOTE. l know some people that have college degrees and they cannot find that way out of a paper bag.
I do not understand Ms. Handle being upset about the accrual method for time earned. In the private sector, if you leave a company you get paid for any unused vacation time. Why should state workers be treated any other way? What does she have against state workers???!!!!!!!!!! If they leave they can only be paid for their vacation time but not their sick time.
I guess that you can tell that I am a state worker. I have worked hard and I am tired of people giving us a bad wrap.
The “Enron” style of financing is hisitrical. The Governor wanted all those road projects in record time (18 years in 6 years – can”t remember) but there is news story on it somewhere. He was really proud of it. He seems to have forgotten that issue.
If there is a lay off in the state government, I think that they should start with Mrs. Handel since it was her fine idea. It should be easy with her experience too find a job in the private sector and the loss of her salary would help the budget. It am I am not mistaken the legislatures would not even take a furlouogh because it was not in their “contracts”. They are our elected officials and if they want to help the budget they should be willing to do anything that they ask of a state employee or teacher.
I think that I may just quit my job and run for office. I obviouosly cannot do any worse than the ones that are running. Putting people out of jobs is not going to help “stimulate” the economy because they will not be buying anything and the ones that are out of work cannot find jobs. I wonder how the day care businesses are faring?
I think that everyone needs to start watching the news and taking note of what is going on in this state and this country and remember that it was founded for the people by the people.
wild one
February 27th, 2010
1:59 pm
As a state employee I do have a couple thousand hours of paid leave on the books. That is because I work even though I may feel under the weather some days. I hardly ever take a vacation because my work load just does not allow me the time off. This is what I was raised to call a “WORK ETHIC”. Lady, if you worked for this state as long and as hard as I have, you would know just what an insult you are to the under paid employee’s of this once great state.
wild one
February 27th, 2010
2:05 pm
Wally, I feel your pain !!!
State Employee
February 27th, 2010
5:07 pm
Well, first, the State should have eliminated lots of State Agencies that were overlapping each other, but hey we can Thank Sonny for the additional agencies, he did have to pay some debt after winning and get people large salary jobs. (Dick Anderson. etc) Second, Karen, do all of us a favor and just step out of the race and go and play with your two dogs and stay away from the Adult Jobs. Its great to know that she was not complianing about the state benefits when Sonny hired her and she was enjoying her time and benefits. Karen and Sonny, should make us all think about not voting anyone into office, they lie to get in and lie more to stay….ROY BARNES PLEASE FIX STATE GOVERNMENT.
Esther Goen
February 28th, 2010
2:11 pm
Maybe the “Bring it on girl” will go back to Hallmark cards! She needs to give it up.
Willie Mae Evans
February 28th, 2010
2:14 pm
She may go back to Hallmark Cards but please do not let her become governor,her nor that OX man.
Kelley
March 1st, 2010
8:03 pm
PLEASE do not ever, not ever, use Karen Handel and honest in the same sentence. She is so crooked she will have to be screwed into the ground when she dies. I would rather play with snakes than work for her. Oh, wait, she is a snake. Well there you go, a crooked snake. AND she surrounds herself with those of the same mould. Yes, I do know her, she is a hateful, vindictive sociopath. Watch her chubby cheeks and her thin lips purse when she is cornered. Watch her beady eyes, they will tell on her. OH, and another thing, I don’t like her!
That aside if you vote for her don’t say I didn’t tell you. She’ll take this state to a new low, even lower than Perdue and his go figure, go fish. program and his horsey park. And then there is the 20 mil he borrowed and “paid” back but he didn’t have to explain. You don’t think the bunch is crooked?
There is another of Perdue’s girls, the ‘inspector general’, if I were her husband I’d be wanting to know what she has done for Sonny that he owed her a judgeship. Was she inspecting the general?