Nearly 1,000 state employees are waiting to learn if they will be allowed to quit their jobs under a voluntary separation program that aims to shrink the size of state government and cut expenses.
Of the thousands who were notified of the early out program in July, a total of 980 employees had applied by the Aug. 4 deadline, state officials said.
Not all of them will be allowed to quit. The state is reviewing the applications and decisions will be based on “the mission and priorities of the agency and … an evaluation of whether the function of the position is required,” a spokesperson for Gov. Wes. Moore (D) said in an email. Workers also have to have worked at least two years for the state to take advantage of the program.
The Department of Budget and Management plans to notify employees in mid-September of whether their application for separation has been accepted or not. When they unveiled the program in late June, administration officials insisted that they did not have a specific target in mind for the number of workers they were hoping would leave, only that it was one part of a larger effort to cut $121 million in state personnel expenses.
“The VSP [voluntary separation program] is one of several actions the governor has implemented to achieve the $121 million reduction, including the hiring freeze already announced,” a DBM spokesperson said in an email when the program was announced.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Lauren Lifke over at Maryland Matters
