WAOW - Newsline 9, Wausau News, Weather, SportsFurloughs for all state employees
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MADISON (WKOW) -- Governor Doyle announced Thursday all of Wisconsin's nearly 60,000 state employees will receive furloughs of more than three weeks over the next two years to help the state cope with a balooning budget deficit.
A spokesperson for Doyle said the unpaid days off would include employees of the University of Wisconsin.
Doyle said the furloughs would involve 16 days for every worker, to be scheduled between this summer, and the summer of 2011.
In addition to the furloughs, Doyle proposed rescinding two percent pay raises for nearly 10,000 state workers, most of them managerial.
Department of Administration officials said as a result of weaker than expected tax collections in April, the state's budget deficit has grown by as much as $1.5 billion. Coupled with a previous budget deficit estimate, officials said Wisconsin faces a total budget shortfall of more than $6 billion dollars.
Doyle said at least 400 state workers could lose jobs over the next two years, as the state also copes with a $400 million shortfall in the current budget, which ends this summer. State law requires a balanced budget at the time of a budget's conclusion.
State officials said renegotiation of labor contracts with unions representing state workers might be able to forestall the job layoffs. But officials also said state agencies may be required to cut their individual budgets by as much as five percent, which could result in additional lay offs.
Doyle said in order to manage the recent, additional state revenue downturn, state funds for schools and local governments would also be cut.
State officials said more than two dozen other states experienced similar, significant drop offs in tax revenues, resulting in austerity measures, including hundreds of layoffs of state workers in Massachusetts and furloughs in several other states.
