Perdue announces furloughs

What an interesting time to choose to furlough state employees. Just when President Obama's stimulus package is sent out to help hard working americans make it through difficult times, Gov. Purdue takes it back in a furlough. There has to be other avenues other than a furlough or layoffs. First, I believe the people of North Carolina deserve a better explanation of the use of state funds and more clarity as to why there is such a short fall of funds other than taxes -which are high. This is a terrible move on behalf of the Governor and one that surely is not going to help in the next election. State employees and their families are already challenged with high health care costs from Blue Cross and Blue Shield because of the lack of competition for better rates. The legislature should be ashamed of themselves and stand in need of much prayer. Open the doors for competitive health care in North Carolina and quit breaking the backs of the people who serve their cities and this beautiful state everyday. Change has come to Washington, but what about here? Is this the change that moves us forward? Is this the change that helps our children develop? Is this really the change that North Carolinians hoped for? No furloughs and no layoffs. There are other options on the table. 5 percent for a worker making $20,000 dollars is not the same for an employee making $185,000-you can't justify that one. Governor Purdue has a difficult job, I'm sure we all would admit, but this decision I guarantee will shape her administration.

I did not vote for Perdue. I agree with others that state employees should not have to bear the burden of balancing the budget. I hope those who voted for Perdue are happy!!!! Dana Cope, Tony Smith and SENAC Representatives, I hope you are happy with backing Perdue. You got her in office are you happy now.... I am very disappointed with you most of all! As a state employee, I pay membership fees to you to be a spokes person for me to protect my job, salary and benefits. Thanks for nothing... I will be pulling my membership.

Will someone please tell me what country has excelled with socialism?

Using your definition of socialism? Um, every country in Europe that's richer than us and has longer life expectancies.

It seems to me that this is discrimination. To select one population from the entire state? yes, I realize that our tax dollars pay our salaries as well as Mrs. Purdue's. This governmental control has expanded beyond belief and I'm afraid that it is going to only get worse. For those of you who elected this big government, I hope that you are ready to become totally dependent as that is the real agenda..BIG GOVERNMENT MEANS LESS CONTROL by the citizens. IT IS A VIOLATON OF OUR CONSITUTION!!!! Do you want to be a total dependent... as that is what the government is planning..TOTAL SOCIALISM..! Will someone please tell me what country has excelled with socialism?!! Why is this not so easy to deduce throughout the entire system? I think we need a tea party.

This is a joke takeing from state employees thats really going to help were already under paid for the job that we have to do and nobody in raleigh seems to care.The gov before perdue didn't care about prison guards
and senac pushed for gov perdue and this is the results to show for it.
Then there is beacon that we paid germany for they couldn't even get it to work and now state employees are getting screwed out of time that we have earned.But the funny thing is that nobody can give you a striat answer to what has happend to your time not at the instution that you work at or in raleigh.Then to throw gas on the fire gov easley went and give his wife a 88 thousand dollor raise and what did prison guards get out of not one thing.Why don't you just give us a jar of vasalien and tell us to bend over.The next thing you know ex gov easley is taking over beacon that was a joke to begin with i think it was another ploy to screw state employees and nobody seems to care.I also bet you that all these asistants to the asistants are not takeing a pay cut and the only reason there their is because the person they work for don't want to do there job they were elected to do.Senac that is a heck of a canadate that you rallied behind for govaner thanks alot now state employees have to carry burden exspecially prison guards that are already under paid and now you want us to pay for our insurance thats going up in price and decreasing the coverage thanks senac for backing gov perdue im thinking about droping my senac membership because im going to need that little bit of extra money just to make it now again thanks alot

seanc really pushed perdue in the election, so how do you like her now???? Pat McCrory 2012

First of all, I did not vote for Ms. Bev. Second of all, I agree with others that state employees should not have to bear the burden of balancing the budget. We get one email that says she is cutting out pay .5 percent for May and June, then the next email tells that our insurance is going up. I just do not see how we get hit with balancing the budget. Raise taxes and make everyone pay for it. Better yet, have the governor pay rent in the mansion she lives in and pay the state for her cooks, housekeepers and gardners. The rest of us cannot afford those luxurys, we will not be able to afford for for a week or two. You take a person making $12.00 an hour, that is $24960 per year and $2,080 per month. You take .5 percent from that $2080 and that is $104.00 per month that she will be taking from their pay. That $104 could be a big burden on a family that has one person without a job and only one bringing in any money. I say cut the welfare, you have people drawing from our welfare system that are not citizens of the US, that have never worked a day in NC in their lives. I think there is something wrong with this picture. The legislature needs to take a look around and find other ways to balance this budget than taking from the state workers. It is just not fair, not fair at all. We all need to remember this when election time comes round, don't forgive this as something that had to be done. There was other ways to get this money, without taking from the workers. I for one will make me a bumper sticker that says "I am a state employee and Bev balanced the budget with my SALARY!" We all need to get behind this and express out concerns to her and the others in the legislature and other government officials. They have to know this is not fair, everyone needs to pull their share of this.

First of all, I don't see any legislaters taking any pay cuts like the state employees are taking. I don't see any pork barrel projects, like the piers on the coast being cut. Why dosen't the state get rid of the railroad they own. Why can't the state increase taxes for a couple of years to get us through this mess.

The Legislature should take a 100% pay cut, the time they spend in Raleigh is pretty useless and only cost the taxpayer money. Those Legislators who have introduced bills this year to spend money in their district should be taken to the woodshed. It is time for the Legislature and the Governor to support State Employees and not balance the budget on our backs. This would be a new approach to State Government.

Why are state employees the only ones having to shoulder the burden of the entire state's shortfall? Are entitlement program payouts being reduced by .5% as a cost saving measure? What about the other millions of people living in the state who are taking advantage of state services but not having their salaries reduced?

It's sad to see a specific group of people targeted to carry the burden while everyone else reaps the benefits.

Don't blame me. I voted for McCrory and am proud I did.

If anyone was listening to anyone except the Democrat leadership during the campaign they would have heard that the budget shortfall was going to be somewhere between 3.5 to 4 billions dollars.

So now the bills for the corruption that Easley, Perdue, Basnight, Rand and Hackney oversaw are coming due.

You state employees put'em there....how do you like them now?

Oh by the way, that 18 million dollar bed and breakfast that the state wants to run is still being funded as far as I can tell.

thanx perdue i appreciate it

"In exchange, they will receive 10 hours of flex time."

The nature of my job does not allow me to take the flex time I already have accrued.
Now I'm going to get some more.
It might look good on paper but it doesn't work in the real world.
There are jobs that have to be done and they don't allow for critical personel to be on flex time.

Let us be sure to mention that the Tax Payer's Refunds are being held for two months without notifying Tax Payer's. This is a waste of electronic filing. It would be nice to know before filing.

Is the executive branch, including the governor, and the legislative branch also taking a pay cut for that time period?