The Governer of Oregon decided that one way to save money was to have mandatory furlough days for state employees, 14 days for the biennium, which would be approximately 5% savings in wages.
This may be practical in some areas of government but is nothing more than a smoke & mirrors, feel good, look good ploy when it comes to running a facility that requires a certain number of staff per shift, such as a prison, state hospital or juvenile detention facility. A greater amount of money is being spent because overtime staff must be hired, at time and a half, to fill the position of staff that are being forced to take furlough days. So, the savings are really not a great as projected.
I really can't say that I mind a furlough day, because it does give me an extra day off, which I easily make up by working an overtime shift later in the week to cover other staff furloughs. More than anything I simply want to point out how much politicos are into doing things that look good to the public rather than doing that which is truly expedient.
This is merely a reflection of what is going on with government on a much larger scale. Stop the lies!
A huge cut in social spending and we wouldn't be looking at higher state taxes. This state is broke and broken and it has been for many years, yet Oregonians keep voting in the same spenders who created this welfare state. The next election will bring more of the same. No industry, no business, no fiscal discipline and no future. The only growth in Oregon is in government and unemployment, but you can count on another Democrat governor after the next election.
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