Jun 24, 2009 5:48 pm US/Central
State Employees Face Pay Cuts, Layoffs
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CBS) ―
If it were up to you, which would you choose? Helping those in need or saving the jobs of thousands of state workers? CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports that's the choice lawmakers are facing.
Instead of cutting the social services budget, they could cut thousands of employees. Springfield in many ways is a company town, and that company is state government. And despite the Wednesday's sunny weather, the mood measurably darkened when talk here turned to cutting the pay and/or laying off thousands of state employees.
"My wife works for DCFS and we've already been affected there, so if we both got laid off or furlough days, we would take a big hit," said Secretary of State employee Mike Parnell.
"I would prefer to take the furlough days to seeing anybody laid off," one woman said.
The governor asked state employee unions to agree to 12 unpaid furlough days, equivalent to a 4.6 percent pay cut. Now with legislative leaders demanding more cuts, Pat Quinn is preparing big layoffs.
"We have to do what we have to do based on our budget and based on our revenue," Quinn said. "It's going to mean severe discipline in spending. I want to try and do this in as humane a way as possible."
Legislative leaders said cutting the state payroll would reduce the need for so-called doomsday cuts at social service agencies.
"What's going on right now is cruel, it's cynical and it doesn't need to be happening," said Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno.
"I think there probably at the end of the day will be some cuts," said State Rep. Marlow Colvin.
Gov. Quinn has been negotiating with state employee unions over potential pay cuts for the next fiscal year. Those negotiations continue to go nowhere, sources said. It's likely that layoff notices will soon be going out.
Republican leaders in Springfield are pushing a temporary budget solution. They call it a bridge. It would keep spending at the same level as the previous fiscal year until cuts and reforms can be put into place.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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