TRENTON – Gov. Jon S. Corzine on Wednesday, April 15 announced plans by state departments and agencies to implement one-day furloughs of state employees in May and June as a cost-saving measure.
“Making the right choices to maintain a constitutionally balanced budget requires making difficult and tough decisions,” Corzine stated in a release. “After careful review and assurance that the public safety of our state will not be compromised, I have approved the furlough plans submitted by the State departments and agencies.”
Plans for implementing two furlough days in the current 2009 Fiscal Year were developed by the departments and submitted to the Governor’s Office for approval. Additional furlough days in the 2010 Fiscal Year that begins July 1 remain in the departmental planning process and have not yet been finalized.
Corzine late last year proposed the furloughs – technically a one-day, temporary layoff of state employees – along with a wage freeze in response to the steep decline in state revenues as a result of the national economic crisis. The governor said it was preferable to achieve the same payroll savings through furloughs and wage freezes rather than permanent layoffs, which would have added thousands to the state’s unemployment rolls.
“There is an unprecedented reality to the national economic recession that is impacting every state in nation,” Corzine stated. “Here in New Jersey, we have an imminent danger of being able to balance the FY09 budget appropriately if we do not take appropriate and necessary actions.”
Additional information on when state departments and agencies will implement the furloughs in May and June can be found on the Civil Service Commission Web site at http://www.state.nj.us/csc/.
