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Finance: administration to identify 10,000 vacant positions, details due to legislature soon; LAO, senators press for fund‑by‑fund clarity
Summary
Andrew March of the Department of Finance said the administration will implement last year’s budget agreement by identifying roughly 10,000 vacant positions across fund sources and cutting operations 7.95%; committee members and the LAO pressed for fund‑level detail and program impacts.
Andrew March, a budget manager at the Department of Finance, told the Senate subcommittee the 2024 Budget Act required the administration to identify savings by eliminating approximately 10,000 vacant positions and reducing state operations by 7.95% beginning in fiscal year 2024–25. March said the administration is working with departments to deliver finer fund‑by‑fund detail and expects to provide additional information in the coming weeks.
March summarized the scale for the departments in the subcommittee’s jurisdiction as roughly $500,000,000 in reductions, including about $90,000,000 in general fund — about 9,225 positions (Finance’s estimate was discussed in testimony). He emphasized the administration will supply more granular allocations for special funds versus general fund impacts as soon as possible.
Concerns and requested clarifications: The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) and several senators repeatedly pressed Finance to explain programmatic impacts, whether special‑fund position eliminations would actually save general fund dollars, and how to prioritize new program requests that appear in the governor’s budget while positions are being swept.
Key points from the hearing: - Vacant position sweep: The 10,000‑position figure was “agnostic of fund source,” March said, meaning positions funded by special funds may be included. Finance said it will not include positions funded by federal or bond funds in the reductions. - Restoring positions: March said departments would need to submit a future budget change proposal if they later wanted to restore a position that had been eliminated as part of the vacancy sweep. - LAO concerns: The Legislative Analyst’s Office told the committee that more detail is needed to assess how much actual savings will materialize and whether the assumed ongoing savings in the budget act are realistic.
Why it matters: The vacancy sweep was written into last year’s budget and is already assumed in the state’s fiscal arithmetic. Senators said program service levels and special‑funded services could be affected and asked Finance to provide fund‑level detail so policymakers can weigh tradeoffs ahead of the May budget revision.
Next steps: Finance committed to producing detailed fund and program lists in the coming weeks and to work with legislative staff to identify program impacts and potential alternatives where legislators object to particular cuts.
