RI gov to shut down state government for 12 days

AP ^

[Truthsearcher]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Rhode Island will shut down its state government for 12 days and trim millions of dollars in funding for local governments under a plan Gov. Don Carcieri proposed Monday to balance a budget hammered by surging unemployment and plummeting tax revenue.

The shutdown would force 81 percent of the roughly 13,550-member state work force, excluding its college system, to stay home a dozen days without pay before the start of the new fiscal year in July....

[Truthsearcher]

Well, let's hope this is the beginning of a trend.

[John123]

and trim millions of dollars in funding for local governments

Oh that can't be good...

[Freddd]

Yeah right. Like California was gonna shut down too...

[BobL]

...353 days to go.

[Vigilanteman]

12 days of unpaid vacation beats the hell out of a pink slip.

[MSF BU]

Let’s start trimming the college system. Across the board 30% wage reductions for all liberal arts and humanities faculty would be an excellent start. Newt had an excellent idea of ‘defunding the Left Wing in this country’ and here is a great opportunity on a state by state level.

[LachlanMinnesota]

Will anyone notice?

[quantim]

13,550 state workers to run a dinky parcel and I thought Detroit was bad.

[CanaGuy]

Can they apply for unemployment?

[GeronL]

Thats a lot of workers for a tiny state

[fso301]

13,550-member state work force

For a State the size of RI, this is way too many... but such can be said about many States.

[SChalice]

A quick perusal of State documentation shows this outlay:

http://www.doc.ri.gov/administration/financial/FY2008%20Expenditures%20Summary.pdf

1/5 of a billion dollars expenditure from the RIDC alone.

The cost of American freedom should be made aware to everyone. 15% of the states budgets like RI go to divisions like these and that percentage is getting higher.

Enjoy people...

[fours]

The Providence Journal says that roughly 1 out of 6 workers in Rhode Island are employed by the state or local government (15%), making $46k on average.

http://www.projo.com/extra/2007/state_workers_pay/

also here is a breakdown of state workers by department:

http://www.projo.com/extra/2007/state_workers_pay/dept_average_salary.html

[Joe Boucher]

And if all state gubmints were shut down forever would anyone really care?

[REPANDPROUDOFIT]

I totally expected to see that he was shutting down "services to the public" while continuing to pay the state workers. How delightful to see that he is actually cutting costs by cutting pay! We absolutely must begin doing more of this or the states are all going bankrupt.

Same applies to Federal workers. Read this CATO INSTITUTE REPORT from Aug 24, 2009: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2008/08/13/federal-worker-pay-blasts-off/.

From the article: new data show that the 1.8 million federal civilian workers earned an average wage of $77,143 in 2007, which is 61 percent higher than the $48,035 average in the U.S. private sector. That 61 percent pay advantage has increased from a 34 percent advantage in 2000. Looking at total compensation (wages plus benefits), federal workers earned an average $116,450 in 2007, which is more than double the $57,615 private sector average. Average WAGES (See Figure 2 for total compensation including benefits) In 2008, the average wage for 1.9 million federal civilian workers was $79,197, which compared to an average $49,935 for the nation’s 108 million private sector workers (measured in full-time equivalents). The figure shows that the federal pay advantage (the gap between the lines) is steadily increasing. Figure 2 shows that the federal advantage is even more pronounced when worker benefits are included. In 2008, federal total worker compensation averaged a remarkable $119,982, which was more than double the private sector average of $59,909.