New York – Governor, David Paterson, proposed some 100,000 state employees stay at home one day a week in a last-ditch bid to save money while the legislature tries to overcome a huge budget deficit.
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Paterson, who has been unable to push a balanced budget through the heavily divided state assembly, said most executive branch employees should go on one furlough day a week until a 2010-11 budget is finally passed, closing a nine-billion-dollar spending gap.
“The state is facing fiscal and cash crises of unprecedented magnitude, and I am being forced to implement difficult actions such as this in order to put our state on the path to recovery,” Paterson said.
However, he said that so far public sector unions had been “unwilling to do what is necessary.”
The proposal seeks to start furloughs in the week of May 10. Employees would not be paid for the day at home. Only public health and safety employees, such as nurses and police, would be spared.
“It is our job to make the difficult decisions that may be unpopular today, but that will help us turn the corner on this crisis,” the governor added in a statement.
The assembly has refused to pass a succession of emergency budget bills put forward by Paterson who has been weakened by political scandals and says he will not seek reelection this November.
New York State depends heavily on tax revenue from New York City and has suffered in the US recession and the steep, if temporary dive in the financial services industry based around Wall Street.
The governor has also urged state lawmakers to meet every day of the working week from next week if they can’t come up with a solution to the crisis.
and I ask him to stay home…
wow!!!
This is almost as dumb as his Soda tax!!
who are his advisors???
I didn’t think anyone can be dumber than him!
How much money will this save?
Very good idea but I would expand it to all “non essential” govt workers like the gov. State senators & assembly men & their drivers,staff
How about they all go home for good? That will save us a lot of money and we won’t have a budget to cover anymore.
Don’t “ask” them to stay home. TELL THEM their next check will be reduced by one days’ pay for each work week until the budget is solved. This is not voluntary. The state is broke and even the workers must share the pain.
are they to stay home with or without pay?
What is the big deal. On any given day, 100.000 of them stay home!
Will anything at state govt. change if they stay home for a day or two or three or four,etc?
and Patterson wonders why his ratings are so low….hmmm???
sure, take a 1/5th pay cut.
no problem. now call their landlord and say take 1/5th off the rent and the same for the phone bill and tuition and so on.
more stupidity.
how about they stop picking on the wall street frims that give us 70 million dollars in new york taxes for every billion dollars they make.
imagine if any of them leave and set up their offices in a different state or even worse a different country. then we will have an even bigger deficit.
new york politicians should be rallying around our wall street firms in a hope to hold on to them before we lose them and the money they provide us with.
and to think….i used to complain about pataki.
oyyyyyyyyyy
All senators in Albany — No payment for executive lunch hours, if we can eat peanut butter and jelly with a cup of coffee or a coke so can you, or better yet bring a brown bag lunch from home that you will enjoy!! Start saving the taxpayers some money!! Start driving to work in your own cars!! You will be reimbursed exactly what the IRS allows not a penny more!!!