The 6-14-10 Wall Street Journal had an article about Illinois budget problems. It goes into great detail about one agency in the state. The Illinois Department of Human Services. The head of the department is featured in the article, Ms. Michelle Saddler. Here are her background credentials. She has run an investment pool for local government, overseen international adoptions, and served on civic boards. She is obviously very concerned about the work of her department and the challenges she is facing to cut budgets.
She says she will cost the state a total of 6,220 private jobs and some or all services for 178,500 people with the cuts she must make.
In the interview, Ms. Saddler discusses all the services she will be forced to cut for people who rely on those services. She discusses the money that will not be coming in and how she will cope with even bigger cuts than the current budget. She basically says there are a lot of people in the state of Illinois who are going to suffer from the budget cuts.
But, in the entirety of the interview there is one group that will not suffer, or if they will, Ms. Saddler chose not to mention them. Her 13,500 employees who help her manage that $4 billion budget.
As always, the people in the state suffer first ,and the union employees of the state skate. My guess, if the state of Illinois were to outsource Ms. Saddler’s department, the outsourcer could do the job with half the employees. Why? Their employees would show up for work every day. They would be accountable, have goals, be paid less, and have less benefits. And, they would do a better job.
So, Ms. Saddler, if you really care about those people you say will suffer so much, step up to the plate and tell your mentor and lame duck Governor, Pat Quinn, let’s put this out for bid. Let’s take care of the people who need the help. If the outsourcer chooses to hire our people, that’s good. If not, they will find government jobs somewhere else.
Wouldn’t that be an interview?
