Gov. David Paterson’s early retirement incentive was designed to shrink the state payroll in efforts to save $250 million in work force costs.
But in an odd twist, the plan may also mean some hefty promotions and higher salaries for a select group of state employees.
That’s because some state agencies including the Department of Environmental Conservation are promoting people from lower-level jobs to fill managerial vacancies created by those early retirements.
The precise number of promotions, sometimes dubbed “backfills,” and the number of agencies that are doing this isn’t yet clear, as the state Budget Division doesn’t break out such statistics by agency.
“It was a small number spread over the entire state work force,” Budget Division spokesman Erik Kriss said…
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