Some states slash jobs, spending
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Hard financial times are affecting the budgets of many states and leading to layoffs of state workers and reduction in services.
Massive job cuts have been announced in several states.
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said he would eliminate 14,000 state jobs. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced plans to lay off more than 10,000 workers and freeze pay for all state workers who manage to hang on to their jobs. Texas lawmakers weren’t far behind with plans to cut 9,300 jobs.
Conservatives who have long argued for smaller government are finally seeing cuts to both state workers and state services.
In Texas, state lawmakers recommend closing a prison and three youth detention facilities, along with cutting 6.3 percent of the staff in the department of public safety and criminal justice. In addition, children will be less protected from child abuse with the layoffs of 565 caseworkers tasked with protecting children by investigating charges of child abuse.
In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick wants to close two of the state’s 19 prisons.
He also proposes cuts to the security nets for many of the state’s poor or vulnerable, including avoiding an increase of $1 billion in medical insurance subsidies for low-income individuals, cutting funding to homeless shelters by $23 million, cutting spending for Department of Mental Health hospitals by $16.4 million and cutting funds for state employment services programs by $15 million.
In addition, Patrick proposes cutting state funds for municipal operations in cities and town by 7.2 percent, or $65 million.
View full post on All Stories
