Comments (32) | Add a comment
EDITORIAL
Even with prison's closing, state can't find a way to save money
Tools
A few hundred prisoners get transferred to other facilities from the Nevada State Prison in Carson City, one of the oldest in the West. Most of the employees have found work at those other correctional facilities, though as many as 13 guards -- who won't or can't move the 100 miles to the nearest similar facility, in Lovelock -- may be laid off, qualifying them for unemployment come January.
What's the big deal?
The importance of the dust-up over when the 144-year-old state prison will close is the spotlight it shines on the question of whether state government can figure out how to save money anywhere, even by taking the kinds of steps now considered perfectly normal for employers trying to control costs in the private sector.
Gov. Brian Sandoval wanted to close the old prison in October, in hopes the move would save the state $15 million.
The Legislature -- dancing to the tune of the unionized state workforce, as usual -- postponed the closure till April 1, in order to give those workers an extra six months to find other government jobs.
Fine.
But as the state Department of Corrections went to work transferring prisoners elsewhere, it ended up with a weird fiscal anomaly: The department ran up $2.5 million in extra overtime in the third quarter, even as it now finds itself with 73 staff members to guard the remaining 140 inmates at the old Carson City lockup, designed to hold 800.
Out here in the real world, when an employer finds himself with an excess of staff, he lays some off or at least cuts some workers back to part-time. But when the state Department of Corrections is instructed to pursue the same kinds of efficiencies, it runs up millions in overtime, a problem they can figure no way to solve but to close the prison three months ahead of schedule, on Jan. 9?
The governor deserves credit for seeking ways to save taxpayers money. The problem is, a governor with the right instincts is left looking, here, like a rancher trying to herd cats with a broom.
Does the problem lie with Corrections Director Greg Cox, or with employment and work rules that tie his hands? Somebody had better find out, because more state belt-tightening may still be in order in the months and years to come.
Comments
Terms & Conditions
The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The Review-Journal does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please use the Report Abuse button.
Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 24 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
David how much time did you do in prison for drugs
David: The point is your fantasy world, where "free men" living in liberty and justice for all just does not exist, never has and never can so long as men's hearts are as hard as they are. Your fantasy is little different than that imagined by the communists who believe that men's hearts were pure enough to put aside their selfishness and design a society where from each according to his ability, to each according to their need, was possible. In your world David, you so misimagine the nature of men to believe that, given the opportunity, they would conduct themselves with the same imaginary morality and constraint. Both are fantasies, and neither can exist on the earth today.
"And, when the coal owners all got together, and bought the railroads, and the steel plants, and the oil companies, and all of them said eat that dirt faster and for less, what were the people going to do then David?" - Don't know about the people but I know what dishonest Abe did. He killed many of his fellow country men that just wanted to leave the company town and also snuffed out the shinning beakon on the hill.
@btdt. I would suggest stop being a coal miner. But, great analogy for government. Just replace "company town" with government. While there are very few private business in existance in Amerika today, a few do exist. Even the merchantilist ones feel the pressure of people voting with their wallets. Sure, they might be bail out but those that love to label certains businesses as "too big to fail", but their customers are the final word. Which just is not the case with government, as we are not customers but serfs.
Michael Commenting - State Correctional Officers do not even make 50k. Your little "fire them all" comment means nothing.
Oh..here we go again....State Workers are not Unionized...they have no collective bargaining rights....City and County workers are Unionized..but the legislature will not give state workers the same rights they voted to get city and county workers...
Interesting idea; saving money, but who are we saving money for? I mean, who is paying the money that is being spent, and who is spending the money after it is spent? Well, for the most part, since the tax revenue this state receives comes from tourists, it would appear that we are using money from tourists to pay workers in this state who then turn around, typically, and spend that money in the state. If we didn't "spend" that money, and in fact just reduced that money by letting the tourists keep more of their money, and had fewer workers in this state, who were paid less, then..wait a minute. If that happened, wouldn't this state, and its workers be worse off? Ah, forget that thinking stuff, lets just cut taxes...on tourists. Somehow it will all work out right?
You can thank the unions for screwing the public and making sure that the State can't save any money when it comes to personnel costs. No money will ever be saved until you get rid of the UNIONS.
And, David, I know you live in a world that doesn't really exist so you saying that if you don't like a business, move somewhere else is consistent. Tell me David where the coal miners were moving to when the coal mine and the company store, told them to eat dirt...and faster. And, when they got to the next coal town, owned by the same coal mining owner, and that owner told them to eat dirt too, except faster and faster, what were the coal miners to do then? And, when the coal owners all got together, and bought the railroads, and the steel plants, and the oil companies, and all of them said eat that dirt faster and for less, what were the people going to do then David?
Well David, since you will claim that every company existing today is some sort of mercantilist business, then what evidence can you have that any company is ever held responsible for anything? You see the problem here right? I mean, your claiming that businesses are held responsible for the stuff they do wrong, but then when the wrongs they aren't held responsible for are pointed out, you claim that their are some "non-business" entity. Its a dodge man and your missing it if you don't understand it.