LANSING – Gov. Jennifer Granholm gave state employee unions 30 days notice Friday of possible layoffs due to the lack of a completed budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year that starts October 1.
Although the governor’s office stressed that it was only following contractual obligation in notifying employees of layoffs and has no plans of a shutdown, the action only further adds to the discomfort that the budget-writing process is increasingly resembling what happened in 2007 when a four-hour partial shutdown of government occurred.
“We have an obligation under the contract to notify the bargaining units, and given the fact that we do not have a budget in place, we sent that notice today,” Granholm press secretary Liz Boyd said. “The governor has been very clear that everyone is working on getting a budget in place for the 2010 fiscal year.”
The notice reads: “This is to advise you that all Departments are preparing plans for indefinite layoff of employees … due to lack of funds, reduction in spending authorization, and/or administrative efficiency. This is also to advise you that all Departments are also preparing plans for temporary layoffs due to unanticipated loss of funding. The projected commencement date of these layoffs is on or after October 1, 2009.”
State employee unions were expectedly unhappy with the notice.
“Again, we are the ones taking the brunt of the mismanagement of our state,” said Scott Dianda, president of the Michigan State Employees Association.
But Dianda also expected more than furlough days of state employee cuts were going to be needed to help balance the budget.
“The way this budget deficit looks I don’t think they’re going to be able to do it with the savings of implementing temporary layoff days,” he said. “The state saved $26 million with six layoff days. We’d have to give them 60 days to get $60 million. We cannot do that and think that we’re going to save this state.”
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