State to lay off nearly 900 workers by end of year

ALBANY - Nearly 900 state employees will be laid off by Dec. 31 to balance this year's budget, Gov. David A. Paterson announced Thursday.

The state agencies with the most job cuts so far include the departments of environmental conservation, 150; transportation, 100; parks and State Police, each 90; and motor vehicles, 80. Terminations also will occur at prisons and the housing and agriculture offices, but no details were provided.

The layoffs, totaling 898, will likely begin late next month and be completed by year's end when Paterson leaves office.

The Civil Service Employees Association and other unions denounced the governor, accusing him of breaking a signed no-layoffs pledge for 2009 and this year in return for union support of an early retirement program and less generous pension benefits for new hires. The unions plan to file lawsuits to block the cuts. Paterson contends the fiscal crisis trumps the pledge.

On Long Island, the impact of layoffs will likely be small because many state workers are employed by SUNY, the courts and the State Insurance Fund, all of which are exempt from Paterson's plan. Hundreds more care for the developmentally disabled and are protected because their firing would undermine health and safety.

"There will be some pain - that's what a financial crisis entails," Paterson said. "But we have directed the agency heads to try and make sure essential areas are not touched."

He said snowplowing would be unaffected and no motor vehicle offices would close, though motorists would wait longer for driver's licenses. The parks department will sell two money-losing golf courses upstate, and the agriculture and markets department will end pet inspection programs.

"I'm very sorry I have to do it, but I feel I was forced into it," Paterson told WOR radio, referring to union rebuffs of proposals for unpaid furloughs and a delay of one week's pay.

Kenneth Brynien of the Public Employees Federation shot back, saying the governor had rejected the union's call for fewer outside contractors and more early retirements. "Layoffs are an outrage, completely unnecessary and illegal," Brynien said.

In addition to layoffs, Paterson plans to eliminate 1,102 jobs through attrition and regular retirements. Since taking office in March 2008, he said, he will have reduced the state workforce under his control by more than 11,000 jobs to 126,500.

More than 60,000 employees at universities, the legislature, courts and public authorities are not under Paterson's purview.

The last governor to implement widespread layoffs was George Pataki, who cut the payroll by 2,500 jobs in 1995-96.

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic nominee for governor, defended Paterson Thursday, saying while regrettable the layoffs are necessary to close a $250-million gap in the $136-billion budget. "The state has a tremendous deficit, the numbers are only going to get worse," Cuomo said, referring to projected red ink of more than $8 billion in 2011-12.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino has vowed to "streamline" state government, including unspecified job cuts.

Environmentalists and parks advocates blasted Paterson.

Albert E. Caccese of Audubon New York and others expressed concern that DEC employees would no longer work on federal Superfund sites. But a spokesman for Paterson's budget office said cleanups of toxic waste would continue because they are federal projects.

With Elizabeth Moore

and Jennifer Smith