Just what the doctor ordered! :)
Posted on 08/18/2009 8:56:56 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Chicago shuts down for a day to save money
The city of Chicago has shut down all "non-essential" public services for a day in an attempt to claw back a $300m (£184m) budget deficit.
Published: 8:44AM BST 18 Aug 2009
In the first of three Reduced Service days, rubbish collections were suspended and libraries and health centres were closed.
Workers have been asked to take an enforced unpaid holiday in a move the authorities hope will save $8.3m.
Chicago's Mayor Richard M Daley thanked state employees for their "sacrifice".
"Every dollar we save from these measures helps to save jobs, and in the long-term, maintain service for Chicagoans," he said.
"This plan engages most civilian employees to accept cuts and to be part of the solution to our budget crisis."
Two more Reduced Service days are planned on November 27, the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.
The total savings are expected to be $34m, but the mayor's office said that despite "efforts to reduce costs and better manage government", the city's shortfall in 2009 will still be about $300m.
Chicago is one of a number of US cities and states to introduce closures and furlough days to address deficits. Other cities in the
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Ping!
I hope this catches on with other state and city governments. The more time they spend shut down, the better off the citzenry will be.
They’ll shut down for the one day and then pay them overtime when they come back to catch up on business that piled up when they were closed .....
I bet I could find permanent savings of up to 35% immediately if the city, like most, were not a job program.
Not surprised in the least....I think such stories and the big one already in the news w/ regards to gubmint fiscal irresponsible situations & the economy (Kalifornika) are a big statement to the depth of the reduction of tax revenues due specifically to the shrinking US economy.
ACORN, La Raza, and the C4C (cash for clunkers) Gubmint Motors, enviro-wacko groups, etc., will still get their payoffs. No cuts there.....
Coming to your city next?
There was a neo-Marxist-Muslim ‘community organizer’ who was planted in Chicago and tutored by the very same crooked Dem machine, whose tax and spend policies have shut the Windy City’s public services down! I wonder whatever happened to that ‘community organizer’.....
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