While DeSantis tours the country telling voters to look at Florida for proof of his governing style, extensive worker shortages are quietly hobbling some of the regular functions of his state government. The main reason? Crappy pay. Via the Tampa Bay Times:
As of October last year, 28 of 29 state agencies had percentages of vacant positions in the double digits, according to statistics obtained by the Tampa Bay Times through a public records request. In some crucial departments — the Department of Education, Department of State, Agency for Persons with Disabilities and the Department of Elder Affairs — about 1 in 4 jobs were open. The Department of Veterans Affairs was hollower, with 39% of positions empty as the agency deals with nursing shortages and staffs up two new nursing homes.
Federal data shows that employees left Florida’s state government at a much higher rate in recent years than the national average and the state has significantly lagged behind in spending federal dollars designed to help mitigate the exodus.
[...] More than a dozen current and former state employees who spoke to the Times from nine different agencies described an environment of overwhelmed departments with ballooning caseloads as workers pick up the duties of vacant positions around them. They said that Florida’s state government exists in a constant state of turnover, where some frustrated employees never come back from lunch breaks and new hires quit during training because they found higher pay digging holes for telephone lines.
So he has federal funds for this specific purpose, but for some reason, just won't spend them.
DeSantis pushed for 5% raises for state employees this year and last, his office noted.
Yet the stubbornly low wages, coupled with Florida’s quickly rising cost of living, has meant state employees who evaluate applications from needy Floridians sometimes qualify for the same public assistance they approve for others.
Several said turnover is worse now than they’ve ever seen.
Oh, here we go. It's the old "lean and mean" government mantra!
“Despite vacancies across the board, we have managed an extraordinarily efficient government, highlighting that a lean government managed by Gov. DeSantis can deliver critical services and functions for residents,” DeSantis spokesperson Jeremy Redfern said.
I suspect Republicans don't believe state employees actually work. So why would keeping them be a priority?
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said her staff is still helping people struggling to get through to the state’s beleaguered unemployment system, years after it first crashed during the pandemic. Her office has also heard from Floridians experiencing delays in getting approved for food stamps or Medicaid, she said.
“Those basic fundamentals of good, efficient, direct government — nonexistent,” Eskamani said. “That’s indicative of DeSantis’ priorities. … He cares about the optics, not the basic functions of government. When that happens, of course you’re going to have a broken government with overworked employees.”
And so on. It's what happens when you try to run government like a crappy cut-rate business.
Most of DeSantis's efforts appear to have gone into gerrymandering the state into a perpetual Republican machine. Too bad about the people who live there!
