Balancing the Budget ... State Furloughs and Employee Ire

Georgia Senate President Pro Tem Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) acknowledged Monday what everybody at the Capitol already suspected: lawmakers won’t be able to balance the state budget without more furlough’s of the government’s 100,000 employees. This is according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution's James Salzer.

While many state agencies have forced employees to take days off with pay for months, this has not been the case for University system employees  (see Is the Academic World Sharing the Economic Pain?) ... to date.

Employees are now reacting online. Here's a sample of the comments:

People under pressure resort to finger pointing...

By td

February 2, 2009 10:34 AM | 

I am a lowed paid DHR employee and have been taking a furlough day each month since Sept. (equal to a 5% pay decrease). If I can do it then all those highly paid University and School system employee’s should be able to take a furlough day also. Do these people think they are better than us and should not have to make any sacrifices?

Some question 'leadership' ...

By Rhonda

February 2, 2009 11:54 AM |

I am a University employee, I feel the VP’s should be the first to be layed off. We do not make enough money to be taken off without pay. We should start at the top and cut back.

Others question the productivity of state employees ...

By First Hand

February 2, 2009 1:08 PM | 

I used to work for the State of Georgia and trust me and believe me when I tell you that there are a lot of dead weight people there. A lot of them have a lot of work to do, but they don’t do it. They do what they want to do when they want to do it.

For a full list of comments, read James Salzer's post.