Washington State's Cost Cutting Moves Opposed by Unions

The State of Washington is facing a budget deficit of close to six billion dollars over the next two years. The newly re-elected governor, Christine Gregoire, released a budget that tried to close the gap. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that one of the efforts will be to not have raises for state workers. This has not gone over well with the unions representing the education workers and they have sued to force the state to implement the raises as the contracts call for. In California the state has proposed furloughing workers for two days next year and the unions have also gone to court over that. Unfortunately the biggest cost for the states is the personnel, so either costs are cut through benefit and pay or people are laid off. Both of these states have tried to work it so that will be minimized by cutting other costs. If the unions continue down the path they have chosen it may lead to layoffs.