Exactly what voters want - government growing in the face of a double-dip recession:
- While many states are trying to cut public employees and their benefits, Gov. Quinn’s budget proposal would add nearly 950 people to the state payroll in departments ranging from Corrections to Public Health.
The additions described in a budget analysis from House Democrats would increase the number of state workers 1.7 percent, but they come as the state is trying to claw its way out of a deep budget hole. Republican legislators and some Democrats say Quinn’s spending plan won’t do enough to cut expenses.
The administration said adding some jobs would save money because some state agencies, particularly the Corrections Department, are spending huge amounts on overtime as guards work long hours to make up for a staff shortage.
In other cases, the Democratic governor’s staff said, new laws require new hiring.
New laws require new hiring? Maybe the budget needs to be rewritten. Again. And how can the Department of Corrections be shorthanded? Quinn paroled almost 2,000 inmates. Cook County Jail mothballed a couple divisions plus the judges and juries aren't convicting anyone at the rates they used to.
Everyone else in government is laying people off - but not Quinn.
Everyone else in government is laying people off - but not Quinn.