Governor Says Layoffs Will Be Part Of His Budget Plan

Governor Phil Bredesen says he’s planning layoffs of some state employees, but won’t reveal the exact number until his state budget address Monday night.

The governor says the layoffs will come in a couple of categories: cuts that are being done for what he calls “business reasons” – published reports say some driver’s license stations are targeted for closure – and cuts that he calls “involuntary.

“…involuntary in the sense that these are layoffs that are painful, right now, and you hope at some point in the future …could be retrieved, but we need to do things to get through the budget. “

Bredesen says the cuts to be laid out in Monday night’s budget address will be noticeable.

“You can’t get from where we are to where we need to be without doing things that people are noticing. And remember that we really have two years worth of cuts to deal with. Because of the stimulus funds, there were a number of cuts that were actually made, legally, last year, but which really haven’t come into effect yet. So there’s really kind of a double hit here in terms of, in terms of the cuts.”

WPLN will carry his State of the State address live, Monday evening at 6.The governor made the statements Tuesday after signing the two education bills passed by the state legislature last week