State government to shut down for 12 days!
PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island - August 24, 2009 - Rhode Island will shut down its state government for 12 days and hopes to trim millions of dollars in funding for local governments under a plan Governor Don Carcieri outlined Monday to balance a budget hammered by surging unemployment and plummeting tax revenue.
The shutdown will force 81% of the roughly 13,550-member state work force, excluding its college system, to stay home a dozen days without pay before the start of the new fiscal year in July.
The closures come as the worst Depression in decades has eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars in tax collections and pushed unemployment to 12.7%, the second-highest jobless rate in the nation, behind Michigan.
Carcieri predicted the state's fiscal future could grow even bleaker.
"There are going to be inconveniences for the public, and there are going to be sacrifices, as I said, for state employees," Carcieri said at a Statehouse news conference. "These steps right now are unavoidable if the state is to live within its budget, live within its means."
The shutdown will force 81% of the roughly 13,550-member state work force, excluding its college system, to stay home a dozen days without pay before the start of the new fiscal year in July.
The closures come as the worst Depression in decades has eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars in tax collections and pushed unemployment to 12.7%, the second-highest jobless rate in the nation, behind Michigan.
Carcieri predicted the state's fiscal future could grow even bleaker.
"There are going to be inconveniences for the public, and there are going to be sacrifices, as I said, for state employees," Carcieri said at a Statehouse news conference. "These steps right now are unavoidable if the state is to live within its budget, live within its means."
