MO governor threatens layoffs if legislature won't fund the budget
Gov. Jay Nixon this morning promised to "reduce staff and services accordingly — including making the necessary layoffs — effective July 1" if lawmakers pass the state's budget in its current form.
Nixon made his promise at a news conference, where he took no questions.
He did not say where those job reductions and layoffs would be, although spokesman Scott Holste acknowledged it’s logical to assume they would be in the Revenue Department's motor vehicles division.
The governor said his actions would occur because the compromise budget agreed to Tuesday by House and Senate negotiators "took the unprecedented step of only funding two-thirds of the fiscal year 2014 budget for the Division of Motor Vehicles — indicating that this was intended to fund only a portion of the fiscal year (and) cut by one-third the funding for the contract for printing and distribution of Missouri-issued drivers licenses.
"This irresponsible tactic of attempting to fund government in a piecemeal fashion, to be revisited over the course of the year, is not the way we have done business in the past, and is not the way we will do business going forward."
Senate Appropriation Chairman Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, challenged Nixon’s reasoning:
"I think we made it very clear ... in the hearing, that Revenue is getting a full budget for eight months.
"We made some things very clear that we think the governor has been doing illegally."
At issue is the ongoing Revenue Department practice of scanning birth certificates and other documents as part of Missourians' application to get or renew their driver's and non-driver's licenses.
More ... http://www.fultonsun.com/news/2013/may/08/nixon-promises-layoffs-if-budget-not-changed/
