Las Vegas Moves to Finalize Layoffs

The Las Vegas City Council will meet on Monday and is expected to adopt a budget which will result in approximately 200 layoffs for city employees. The number of layoffs, while higher than initial estimates of 140, is significantly lower than the 300 which Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said was possible as recently as last week.

In addition to layoffs, the new budget will reduce funding for numerous city services, including the city jail and firefighting. The current plan proposes furloughing individual firefighting units on different days in what has been described as “rolling brown-outs” of fire protection.

Las Vegas currently has a projected 2011 deficit of $80 million.