State government at work

It's eight more days until Pennsylvania's current budget period ends and we're nowhere near to having anything in place. We're going to have a repeat of last year. No one who is not part of the legislature can quite understand it. It's not like they and the governor didn't know that it was coming up. What exactly were they doing for the past four months?

The dear gov is threatening layoffs again starting next month. Hardly surprising. That's his schtick. Increase the funding for education again by $500,000 million plus and layoff workers to help cover it. He wants to be known as the education governor before his final term ends this year. He'll certainly be known for something, but I don't think it'll be that. We haven't had an on time budget since 2002, the year before he came into office.

On a positive note, my uncle who was furloughed from the Commonwealth in November is back as of yesterday (makes sense, yes? calling people back while threatening fuloughs). Thanks to the union, those furloughed get first dibs on open positions. A position doing what he used to do happened to open up in his old department. Thank goodness. His unemployment was due to run out within a month.

I believe my job is safe from this round of furloughs, but it's no guarantee. I thought my uncle's was safe last year. How wrong I was. I hope I'm safe. My husband and I are both on my insurance since it's so much better than his. I don't want to be forced to switch to one of his company's options before the baby is born.