That's how government employment works.
When the tax revenues drop off, the administrative fat, which could be cut with no noticeable effect, is left in place. Instead, they cut the muscle - the cops, the prison guards, the libraries, the highways - the knife goes right to the small percentage of government employees that actually do something useful - to 'demonstrate' to the public that no cuts can be made without pain.
This is why they say the new stimulus will save the jobs of teachers. Teachers? Why we have to make sure our children are taught,we have no choice but to save teachers jobs.
So no state is overstaffed elsewhere. No state is spending money on things it shouldn’t like,hey,illegals? The teacher card. When the racism card just won’t work.
I see exactly that plan in operation here where I am in Michigan in the suburbs around the Detroit area.
Property tax revenues fall, the voters do not approve a milliage, and they cut the library and senior center and some police.
My personal opinion is if that is what they are going to do, then after they make those first major and painful cuts in those areas, what reason is there is there to ever vote for a milliage again? Just keep cutting from there, as they have already done the worst they can do tio cut services...
One (or two) words of warning however: They do ramp up the enforcement of every law possible that they can write a citation for. Code enforcement (cut your grass, no cars being worked on in the driveway or back yard, etc.) and traffic enforcement (no talking on the cell phone or drinking or eating while driving, etc.).
In addition to cutting services, they also send the enforcers out to write as many tickets as they can to get additional revenue that way.
Just a heads up...