More background on what the Governor's No. 2 said on overtime and furloughs

When the special furlough bargaining team and the Community College Coalition Bargaining delivered petitions July 7, the governor’s chief of staff said furlough-caused overtime costs would have to be made up with further cuts in programs. We don’t know if this is a “smoking gun” the blows the lid off the behind-the-scenes phony furlough scheme. But it clearly shows they’re going to take it out of your hide one way or another.

Here’s what Chief of Staff Jay Manning said:

“You’re right. The experience in several states has been that it doesn’t end up saving money because people end up working overtime, getting paid time and a half and you end up losing money. That was the Oregon experience. 

 “Our direction to the agencies is if we let that happen, we’re then going to have to figure out some other place to take these cuts, this $48 million. So you’re going to have to manage that overtime as well as you can. It’s not going to be possible in every case that we can avoid overtime. …

“To the extent that furloughs are prompting more overtime, this will be a failure and we are going to have to do our best to manage our way through that. And do everything we can do to avoid that outcome because the cuts are still going to have to happen. We have to have a balanced budget at the end of the biennium. And it’s going to come from somewhere.”