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| Cuts in corrections, public safety eyed |
| By wcfcourier.com |
| Published: 11/09/2009 |
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DES MOINES - Administration officials clamped tight secrecy Friday on budget-cutting discussions and the potential for more employee layoffs as they work to find cost savings in corrections and public safety areas. Troy Price, spokesman for Gov. Chet Culver, said there will be no public comment regarding confidential discussions over reopening current contracts with three state employee unions aimed at helping to achieve $565 million in cuts to executive-branch agencies yet this fiscal year. "We're not going to comment on anything or have anything more to say until we know whether the talks have either failed or been successful," he said. "This process could take weeks, but we will let you know when we have something we can share." At Friday's Iowa Board of Corrections meeting members were told the governor has rejected the Department of Corrections plan to achieve nearly $36 million in savings by next June 30 by laying off 515 full-time workers and eliminating 262 vacant positions, but little is known beyond that. "There just isn't anything that we can say today at this time. The next announcement will probably come from the governor's office," said department spokesman Fred Scaletta. "Everything is just uncertain at this point." In the meantime, department director John Baldwin said corrections officials are still hiring employees to cover critical functions and closely monitoring purchases and expenses in a budget area that is solely dependent on the state general fund for financing. Last month Culver ordered a 10 percent across-the-board cut in general fund spending due to a plunge in recession-riddled state revenues. Read More. |
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