Blame the Feds
May 9, 2008 by demarcationville
The Greeneville Sun reports that Tennessee Labor and Workforce Development officials are closing several career centers across the state.
One in Greeneville is scheduled to close Aug. 31.
Milissa Reierson, a spokeswoman for the department, said increases in operating costs and inadequate federal funding forced the closures.
Besides the Greeneville Center, the other affected offices, according to a list provided by Reierson, are:
* Celina, in Clay Co., which closed Feb. 1, 2007;
* Erwin, in Unicoi Co., which closed Feb. 1, 2007;
* Dandridge in Jefferson Co., which is scheduled to close June 30, 2008;
* Fayetteville, in Lincoln Co., which closed Jan. 25, 2008;
* Gainesboro, in Jackson Co., which closed Feb. 1, 2007;
* Jasper, in Marion Co., which is scheduled to close June 30, 2008;
* Livingston, in Overton Co., which closed Feb. 1, 2007;
* Opry Mills, in Davidson Co., which closed Sept. 28, 2007;
* Tazewell, in Claiborne Co., which is scheduled to close June 30, 2008;
* Camden, in Benton Co., scheduled to close June 1, 2008; and
* Dayton, in Rhea Co., which is scheduled to close July 1, 2008.
Report here.
I had to read the article very carefully to see what the controversy is. The federal government has had these job centers funded since the 1930s and states get a certain amount of money to run them. The centers are 100% funded from this. Tennessee’s centers have costs spiraling out of control, so they have to shut down some of the centers. There is no explanation whatsoever for the source of the cost increases. Have employees been getting a lot of raises? Have they hired too many people to work the offices? Are they using a phone plan that charges a lot rather than go with one of the cheaper options nowadays? Are they running air conditioning 24/7 and leaving the lights on? We are not told.
Addressing the issues of costs are not something the state is interested in it seems. Instead, they shut down many of the offices and blame the federal government, who hasn’t done anything differently. Funding has not been cut.
Rather than lay off the employees at the shut down centers and save on their salaries, all employees are being kept and staff is moved to other centers, which will now have even more employees.
From the photograph of an empty parking lot, it seems that these job centers are not helping many people anyway. Maybe the state should just shut all of them down. Back in the 1930s, there was no such thing as Temp Agencies like Manpower. Now that the private sector has filled the gap, wasteful spending on these duplicated programs is no longer necessary.
But they will never cut funding, any more than the Federal Office of Wooden Airplane Inspection will be disbanded even though no Wooden Airplanes have been built in decades.