Anyone else affected by the furloughs for State employees? Our agency had to take a 3-day furlough each month and may last until July. That's about $375 from each paycheck. Ouch!!!

3-days per person, per month? Wow... I guess I'd take a furlough over being laid off, and a general pay cut, but still sucks. Are they all Fridays?

Ouch!

The employees can chose any day to use their furlough, but it must not affect the operations of the division - for example, the entire staff of a division can't all take the same furlough days.

3 days monthly is not an insignificant pay hit each month, and state staffers have no assurance of matters being better come July 1, and some indications things may be worse.

An agency were I was engaged in the past has folks on furloughs as well, perhaps two days a month though instead of three. This action came after either two or three reduction in force actions that reduced staffing levels in addition to killing off the few positions which were vacant at the time.

Worked with some of them several years. Others came after I departed. I worry also for my friends who are still slogging away.

I work for the agency Kevin is referencing. We have had two rounds of RIFS and began furloughs this month. Right now it is 2 days but that is going to cost me almost 600 per month. Pretty serious hit. At one point they said we might have to go to 4 days a month. That would be a 20% reduction in income for me. Probably won't be 4 but it is possible. We lost some good people last week. If the revenue/allocation numbers that come out on the 15th are again bad, we may have more RIFS. With the RIFS and the elimination of positions that were vacant and now won't be filled my division is operating several people short which means a lot more work for each of us and longer days and more travel. But I still thank God I have a job. So all in all I am very blessed. I could be one of the ones laid off. My life is good. I must say though, I hope this very hard winter continues for some time as it will give some financial relief to the state as gross production taxes on oil and gas should go up thus improving the state revenue picture. I would rather pay another 100 or so in heating costs each month than lose my job or have 4 furlough days a month and lose about 1200 per month in pay.

Our agency is also doing "voluntary retirements" for those who are eligible. What is strange is that not all state agencies are taking the hit ... apparently DHS and DPS are not being furloughed.

My wife has had to take the furlough days, and has gotten the letters about early retirements. Pretty crazy stuff, lets keep our fingers crossed those tax revenues start to climb. It sure makes me happy to be a private sector guy...

Well some agencies aren't taking big hits because they are in some respects funded by sources other than the state general fund. Take for instance the District Attorney system. They have oher funding vehicles. Bogus check programs which can be a huge cash cow that stays ineach district and is not put into the general fund. Drug asset forfeitures. Probation supervision programs. Each DA gets to keep the money generated therefrom and use it for any lawful purpose.

OSBI. They get to keep all money from concealed carry permit applications. Since Obama was elected the number of applications has gone up somewhere around 350%. That is a huge amount of revenue.

DHS. They have so many programs that are run partly on federal funds. Child support program is an example. ODOT. Again. They get federal highway funds. The court system. Mostly funded from court costs and fees. They can up their revenue by getting more aggressive in collecting fines and costs. In fact they have had a lot of meetings with the judges inthe past few months about getting tougher on collections.

The agencies hardest hit are ones like mine that are fully funded from the general revenue of the state and don't have money making programs that they can control.

Several friends were eligible for early retirement and took it. They were ready to retire, regardless, so that worked for them. However, I feel bad for the ones being furloughed because that really does make an impact. But the revenue is what it is. I hope it gets better, soon. Hang in there, guys.

I guess they aren't going to touch the "Rainy Day" money. Let us suffer for awhile.

Things are bad, but they might not be as bad as we're currently thinking they will be in the future. Apparently the Treasurer's office made their budget projections based on the price of natural gas averaging $3.92/MMbtu. Right now it's hovering at $6.00/MMbtu and inventories have fallen. Of course the cold weather is propping up prices right now, but if they can average around $5.40, we'll be in a much better situation. Still bad, but much better than what they projected. Let's hope for the northeast to stay at arctic temperatures for a long time.

Good point, king183.

And let us not forget that Oklahoma is due another round of stimulus money to the tune of $2.6 billion. That money could be used to offset the shortfall in the budget, which would allow us to hold off on using the Rainy Day Fund another year.

Think about that! If we can offset the hole using stimulus money, we are covering ourselves for next fiscal year and still preserving Rainy Day Money for the following year if needed.

We are fortunate to have the Rainy Day Fund. My only wish is that it were increased to, say, a $billion or more.

We have had two rounds of RIFS and began furloughs this month. Right now it is 2 days. At one point we were also told it may go to 4 days a month. About 10 or more people were riff'd last week.

Does anyone want to bet that the Republicans at the State Capitol WON'T try to cut state taxes this year?

Bunty, you don't seem to understand the difference in priorities of state vs. federal government. Moreover, you also seem to want to apply bright line rules to everything. Most of these things are more complicated. There is a big difference between responsible stewardship and blinding closing eyes and following ideological rules. Most state lawmakers are closer to the citizens and kind hide behind committees, unfunded mandates and the like. There will always be fraud but at the state level, it is more likely to be in the way of kickbacks on contracts and things of that nature (if it happens). The actual funding of the government is very closely tied to the needs/desires/actual resources of the citizens. A decision will have to be made to cut services, cut taxes or just limp along since the economy is not the best. Based on your posts, it is clear you like to think you know what they will do as soon as they choose a political party but with all due respect, I don't think anyone can do that, consistently, especially when times are tight.

Only one furlough day needed for February. Hope things continue to improve.