Layoffs looming

Ticking down the days to the official layoff announcements. The union received the required 30 notice of impending layoffs on Monday. How many or who will be laid off won't be known until they actually happen. Well, they won't be known by the employees or general public until then. I'm sure the higher-ups will have an idea who they're letting go.

I'm afraid some of the general, tax-paying public are morons. They're happy whenever government workers are cut. If workers are dismissed, that must mean that they aren't needed. Oh, the naive logic. It makes one shudder to think how simple-minded some people can be to believe these people aren't necessary. I suppose they are right in a way. Once the public services they provide are cut or severely pruned - black fly spraying, library services, environmental protection audits and inspections, business licensing, new business consulting, grant funding, land conservation, state parks and recreation - they won't be necessary.

Some people forget that the state employees currently being threatened are also people, taxpaying citizens with families, mortgages, and other bills. According to them, we get paid to sit around all day chatting with each other. We also drive luxury cars - some even drive luxury state cars (Yes, our bureau's ten year old Ford Taurus is luxury, all right. That musty, mildew smell and rust clearly denote a life of wealth and opulence) - and have the best, most advanced office equipment which never gets used (which is why our copier continually needs servicing and the printer which has been here longer than I have has died . . . it's under use). It's about time some of us were given the boot and were forced to join what I've so lovingly heard called the real world in the private sector. Oh, yes, we are a spoiled lot.

But I digress. The governor tells us to expect up to 1000 layoffs this round. And if we don't receive $850 million in expected federal funding in October, up to 20,000 state and local government employees could lose their jobs. Glamorous government work.

The horrible thing is, we went through all of this last year during budget time, and we can expect more of it next year. Relative job security was one of the few things - along with benefits - that made state employment worth it. That's gone. And with a new governor coming and, therefore, a renegotiation of the union contract, benefits will likely be changing, too. We haven't much to look forward to.