It’s been nearly two weeks since Gov. Jim Doyle announced that state workers will experience what many in the private sector have already gone through because of the national recession.
Awaiting some 67,000 state employees, 30,000 of whom work in Dane County, are 16 furlough days over the next two years and the rollback of a 2 percent pay raise each of the next two years for those who manage to keep their jobs. Upward of 1,100 state workers are expected to face layoffs. While the bare bones of the governor’s plan have been released, the specifics still are under discussion, leaving state workers able to do little more than take a wait-and-see approach to what the economic downturn will mean for them.