© 2024 WUKY
background_fid.jpg
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Lawmakers Get Earful From State Workers

By Tony McVeigh

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wuky/local-wuky-914260.mp3

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- – Kentucky lawmakers are busy fielding calls and emails from state workers upset over pending furloughs. With legislative approval, Gov. Beshear ordered six furlough days this fiscal year for all state workers to save $24-million.

State workers want to know why the furloughs don't apply to legislative employees, but Rep. Mike Cherry, who co-chairs the State Government Committee, says the legislature is laying-off 23 employees, or five percent of its workforce.

"I can't speak for the Judicial Branch, and I'm not going to try to. But I just hope that everybody understands that we in the Legislative Branch are essentially reducing one out of every 20 employees. And I don't think we want to do that on the Executive side."

The Judicial Branch, meanwhile, has laid-off around 175 employees in the past 10 months.

The first furlough day ordered for Executive Branch employees falls on the Friday before Labor Day weekend. The furloughs apply to both merit and non-merit state employees.