Illinois to Layoff If Budget Not Fixed

It looks like some very bad news is coming to the civil servants in the state of Illinois. The Secretary of State for the state of Illinois, one Jesse White released a statement earlier this week saying that a number of state workers may have to be let go in order to deal with the state budget. If the state lawmakers fail to make more cuts to the proposed budget for the next year the state will be forced to get rid of workers in order to make ends meet. At the current moment there were no specific recommendations about what cuts should be made in order to right the budget.

The new budget, which will go into effect in July, has a planned shrinkage of about two percent built into it, but the current estimates are saying that with the increased fuel and postage costs the budget will need more like five percent in order to be in line with reality when it comes to operating costs.

When asked about the cuts White told a journalist for the State Journal-Register the following, “We want to cooperate with the governor and the General Assembly to help them with their budget, but we don’t want to sacrifice road safety and customer service.” He then went on to explain why his budget should not be cut, “For every $1 they appropriate to my office, we generate $6. We are like the golden goose.  We help provide those meaningful dollars to the state of Illinois.”

Of course some cities in the state are hoping to stave off layoffs despite issues with their budgets. For those of you who missed out on our earlier coverage here is an excerpt:

“Springfield Mayor Mike Houston has made a recent announcement that is plan for the upcoming fiscal year will be able to put the city on the right course. The plan is expected to allow the city to make improvements to the city’s infrastructure, replace equipment upgrades to civil service departments and pay off old debts for the city. All of this is achieved without a single loss of a job.

There are some layoffs in the near future for the city, because the 13 current pink slips will stand, but After the first of March, when the new budget goes into effect there should be no need to lose any more jobs. The budget, which totals about $111.6 million, will cover the cost of 877 employees of the city without raising any of the city’s property taxes. The taxes have been at the same level for several years now, and the idea of a tax hike would not have been a popular one.  When you consider that both the state and local sales taxes are expected to increase by about 1.5 percent the fact that the city is not adding to that tax burden is a serious benefit to the citizens. Currently the sales taxes put in place by the city account for about 47 percent of the city’s revenues.

This budget is unique because it does not raise costs, it does not cut jobs and it does not put the city into more debt. The city has in the past, had problems with debt, which this budget hopes to put a dent in.”