From Deseret News archives:

State government taking a hit

Many longtime workers are retiring because of new law

By Bob Bernick Jr. and Lisa Riley Roche
Deseret Morning News graphic

Published: Monday, Dec. 12, 2005 10:15 p.m. MST

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Corrections was thought early on to be one of the worst hit because salaries are generally below those of several county jails across the state, and turnover is already abnormally high.

"We actually haven't lost as many (to retirement) as we expected," said Ford, "but it is still costing us a lot in overtime" as those corrections officers who are left work more and/or longer shifts.

In fact, corrections overtime is double what it was a year ago — $403,000 for the same time period last year compared to $853,700 this year, said Ford.

"We are 87 people short through retirement right now," said Ford. That's on top of the 150 corrections employees who quit to take higher-paying jobs in county jails or with the federal government.

Most of those early retirements are coming at the main Draper prison and in Adult Probation and Parole, he added. It takes six to eight weeks to hire a new guard — testing them and conducting background checks — and another five weeks of training before they are placed in a cell-block environment.

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"We've been advertising on the sides of buses, in the newspaper. We're holding weekly open houses" at the Fred House Correction Academy across I-15 from the Draper prison, said Ford. "HB213 is a big factor for us. In 2003 we had 32 retirements, last year 47, and this year so far 87."

HB213 and its effects hit close to home even for Utah House members. Longtime House Clerk Carole Peterson, who worked 30 years for the Legislature, left several weeks ago in part because she would lose much of her retirement health-care insurance benefits if she stayed.

In arguing for HB213 during the 2005 session, Rep. David Clark, R-Santa Clara, the bill's sponsor, said the state simply couldn't afford the huge health-care costs that were coming down the road as baby boomers and then the next generation of state workers retired. Clark guessed that the fiscal impact would be more than $300 million in just a few years as health-care costs increase annually by more than 10 percent.

A preliminary actuarial study conducted for the state this summer shows that even with HB213, the state is underfunded by $51 million in each of the next 25 years. That leaves the state $536 million short of what's needed to pay for even the trimmed-back retirement health-care benefits.

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com; lisa@desnews.com