Budget Woes

Some scary stuff is coming down the line. I am sure most of you have heard about Govenor Schwartzenager ordering the lay off 10,000 of the states 22,000+ part time employees and lowering the wage of the rest (~200,000) to minimum wage. This is a scare tactic that the govenor is using to force lawmakers in California to come up with a workable budget. In the mean time though, everyone is worried.

Govenor Gregoir has issued a hiring and travel freeze for the next few months for her state agencies, according to an article in the Puget Sound Business Journal.

And; Was Greg Nichols plan to save the budget when he let the Sonics go? It turns out that that $45 million is that much less we will have to find in our next budget, where we still have to come up with $50 mill to make things right. We might not get all those new cops that were promised.

I was talking to a friend yesterday, saying that I know this should affect me, but I just wasn't feeling it yet. I got all of these articles by email yesterday, from my Union. I guess it is time. Luckily none of this affects my job, but very soon it could impact me in a work-load kind of way. If the city puts on a hiring freeze, we will lose librarians and not replace them. We might also cut back on the programing we offer and the number of materials we buy for patrons to check out. I hope this recession turns around before the quality of the services we offer the citizens of Seattle and King County have to suffer.