{"id":243,"date":"2008-11-13T06:03:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-13T10:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2008\/11\/13\/is-governor-paterson-really-talking-about-250-layoffs-statewide\/"},"modified":"2008-11-13T06:03:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-13T10:03:00","slug":"is-governor-paterson-really-talking-about-250-layoffs-statewide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2008\/11\/13\/is-governor-paterson-really-talking-about-250-layoffs-statewide\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Governor Paterson really talking about 250 layoffs statewide?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At his press conference yesterday, Governor David Paterson said something that led much of the news coverage that followed.<\/p>\n

Despite deep and necessary budget cuts, he insisted, “”We’re not going to schedule any layoffs” of state workers.<\/p>\n

But then he added this — which made it into very little of the reporting statewide (emphasis added):<\/p>\n

“We are thinking of not having to have any reductions to the workforce OTHER THAN WHERE WE REDUCE AGENCIES OR HAVE CONSOLIDATIONS.<\/p>\n

In those cases there may be a reduction of the workforce slightly.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It turns out, Gov. Paterson is proposing 24 lay-offs in Clinton County, with the closure of a special-needs boarding school run by the Office of Children and Family Services.<\/p>\n

And buried within his press statement, issued shortly after his press conference, is this rather different message:<\/p>\n

“Overall, these actions [mothballing facilities run by the Office of Children and Family
Services] will result in a 255 full-time equivalent reduction in the size of the OCFS
workforce. <\/p>\n

The agency will make all possible efforts to ensure that this reduction is
achieved through attrition.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I spoke with an official in the state Budget Office, who made it clear that “all possible efforts” does not equal a guarantee. If other jobs are available, fine. If not, these workers are out.<\/p>\n

With a hiring freeze in place statewide, it’s hard to imagine how the system can absorb more than 250 displaced workers.<\/p>\n

State Senator Betty Little put it this way: “In the Governor’s talk this morning, he talked about no lay-offs in state jobs. 24 lay-offs in Clinton County is really difficult.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At his press conference yesterday, Governor David Paterson said something that led much of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}