It did not take Colorado's new prison czar, Tom Clements, long to learn how to play hide the millions while promising cuts. In an article appearing in the Pueblo Chieftain this week, Clements proposes $10 million in CDOC cuts - remember the governor is asking for over $300 million to be taken from education.
Unfortunately, Clements is playing the big government budgetary shell game by proposing cuts to future programs and hires, not current dollars. This is how the game is played: CDOC has a list of future unfunded projects and positions. Anytime they are asked to cut their budget, they cut one of these non- existent programs and claim the imaginary savings as real budget dollars. Meanwhile, the actual CDOC budget, the ballooning one paid for with real taxpayers’ dollars, changes very little and may actually increase in real dollars. CDOC is not alone in this accounting method, nearly all government agencies project budget cuts the same way, that's why the nation is trillions of dollars in real debt.
An example of this is that Clements proposes to cut $1.2 million from the therapeutic community budget. This sounds like therapists will lose their jobs and offices will be closed creating a real savings for taxpayers and a decrease in CDOC's actual budget. But what it actually means is that an unfunded planned expansion of three additional therapeutic communities and associated personnel costs will not happen - they probably were not really going to happen anyway - creating a perceived savings of millions: The shell game.
In a time when actual schools are being shuttered and real teachers are losing their jobs, the CDOC budget could actually increase. Clements is asking for $1.1 million to upgrade the Arrowhead and Four Mile prisons to take the inmates anticipated from the closing of the Fort Lyons Facility - a closing that may not happen while the $1.1 million could still be authorized.
Remember last year when CDOC got an additional $10 million from the legislature to open the underutilized CSP II maximum security prison in a year when prison population dropped and K-12 education was cut by over $260 million.
Below is a look at Clements proposed cuts and what they actually mean to Colorado taxpayers.
- Clements: $3 million cut in academic and vocational programs, eliminating 41.5 jobs.
- Actual: The cuts include inmate assistant teacher positions and vocational programs that have not started. Actual savings unknown.
- Clements: $2.9 million cut by closing the Fort Lyon Facility and 148 jobs.
- Actual: According to CDOC spokesman, Katherine Sanguinetti, no actual jobs will be lost. Everyone will be offered positions at the same pay in any of CDOC's 500 revolving open positions.
The actual closing of Fort Lyons is still being debated.
Colorado history shows strong legislative resistance against closing a prison. Impossible to know if there will be any real savings since the jobs will be maintained and Clements will have to spend $1.1 million to absorb the inmates into other prisons. Some reduction in operating costs should be realized if the facility is actually closed.
- Clements: $658,000 savings by eliminating 14 administrative positions.
- Actual: $0.0 savings since according to Sanguinetti the positions are already vacant.
- Clements: $1.2 million cut to the therapeutic budget.
- Actual: $0.0 savings since the proposed cuts come from programs and hires that do not exist.
The real savings for taxpayers from cuts in CDOC is unknown. Clements, like Zavaras before him, seems to be more interested in empire building than actually being an honest steward of the public trust and going public with the stifling cost of corrections in Colorado.
The corrections officers interviewed for this article were not concerned with the proposed cuts and there affect on Colorado's prison industry or their jobs, they were more concerned about the future of their pensions. One thing is certain, more schools will close and more teachers will lose their jobs before CDC's lucrative game of bunko is finished.
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