Comments on: Final 2009 numbers show state revenue off $1.9 billion

By: Okiesavannahgirl

Okiesavannahgirl — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:32:07 +0000

I am a state employee.I do medicaid for aged, blind, and disabled. I try to find the people I serve, most who are poor, old and sick, other avenues to be able to eat or find discount medicines or pay reasonable rent. Fat Chance! I love my job although the state has never made it easy on us at DHR. They cut back our budgets yet we have to process more people for food stamps and medicaid than ever before. We have not had a raise in a couple of years and when we did it was a whopping 2.5% which let me tell you is nothing. I cannot afford to pay back student loans on my salary, and it is all I can do to keep my head above water now. My vehicle is 15 yrs old. I do not really waste my money but I am telling you, if I am having a hard time, I can’t even imagine how my clients are making it. We need more housing for our elderly, they need to get the maximum amount of food stamps so they can afford to buy their medicine or pay their medical bills that medicare does not pay for. It is a sad state this country is in and the bad thing is when I am old enough to retire my benefits will amount to approximately 600.00 a month. How sad…I will be one of those poor elderly people too along with alot of others besides myself…

By: GMan

GMan — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:46:15 +0000

Lets be honest, only about 1 in 3 state employees are great employees that are looking out for the best interests of the state and citizens. The other 1/3 is just there for a paycheck and benefits, the 1/3 is completely useless. I say take a chapter out of the GE book. Fire bottome 10-20% of employees with lowest ratings and reward the top employees. Just like in life. I bet that saves millions of dollars and increases the value of services all state agencies provide. And, remove all unions. They are true barriers to real change and the only last protected class is the public sector, but everyone has their day. Just look at the steel industry, auto, manufacturing, etc, etc. Fire 20% and reward the top 20%. We’ll have the best run state in the country.

By: GaNative

GaNative — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:09:46 +0000

Grumpy, they should fire everyone at the GA Department of Labor. I’ve been through the bs with them. They side with the companies when it comes to their pitiful arbitration that is held over the telephone. Everyone one of them should get their azz fired to see how it is to be unemployed and without.

By: Grumpy

Grumpy — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:15:34 +0000

Ferguson– You’re an idiot! Yeah, let’s cut state employee salaries by 50%. Where do you want to start? How ’bout let’s cut correctional officer salaries by 50%? Then they’ll be getting paid about $14,000 a year to have feces and urine thrown at them. Better yet, why not just fire about half of them? And then when the growing inmate population starts escaping who will you blame then? Or if not correctional officers, how ’bout state patrol? Let’s fire them. Who needs “cops” out there protecting our highways from wreckless and speeding drivers? That’d be great. Or better yet, let’s fire evefryone at tghe Georgia Department of Labor offices around the sdtate so when your miserable gets fired and you need unemployment compensation to keep a roof over your head and food in your fat gut, there will be no employmnet counselor to help you out. Or maybe the folks who issue you your driver’s license. Let’s fire half of them, then you’ll complain when it takes you weeks to get your license renewed.

Ferguson- You obviously don’t have a clue what state employees do for ingrates like you. Before launching off into some kind of mindless diatribe like cutting salaries by 50% and firing more than have already been laid off and furloughed, get your facts straight, bone-brain!

By: Get the Government Off My Back!

Get the Government Off My Back! — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:36:49 +0000

Ferguson, I’m a State employee. Why should I have to take a 50% pay cut? I work my tail off during the week and I don’t use travel and expense accounts because I don’t ever travel on State business. Why are you singling us out? Your logic makes 0 sense.

By: Neil

Neil — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:56:03 +0000

Looks like this is a great example of why we should go to the fair tax.

By: GA FairTax

GA FairTax — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 01:01:00 +0000

“Consumption is a LESS volatile and MORE reliable tax base than income and these statistics are one more indication… The revenue shortfall would have been less than the 8.8% shown above had the state been on a FairTax like system… That is a powerful argument, it seems to me.”

By: TurdFerguson's Turd

TurdFerguson's Turd — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:49:09 +0000

Good news here, let the state not only do with less, but do without. Raise taxes? Sure go ahead. I don’t pay ‘em anyway. I say all state employees from perdue on down take a 50% pay cut. Get rid of all expense accounts & cut spending in every department & authority by 50% immediately. Then, start firing people.
Good for a start.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:38:49 +0000

Say what you may but at least the Governor is not asking for tax increases during a recession like North Carolina’s Governor Bev Perdue is doing. GA’s Governor Perdue is smart enough to know you just can’t tax your way out of a recession.

By: Eddy

Eddy — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:58:42 +0000

” When you do what you’ve always done, you get what you’ve always gotten.” Is there any effort being made in state govt to require each state agency and each department within each agency to determine what is absolutely essential and then budget accordingly? Budgeting is not something the govt is good at or wants to be good at. They start with the premise of the status quo and then go from there. When the govt cuts the budget and then dole out the cuts across the state agencies, are the cuts equal across all agencies? If the agencies haven’t done the detailed work of identifying the absolute essentials within each agency, the broad brush cuts will achieve the goal of cutting the budget but the cuts probably take away some absolute essential functions along with the nice to haves as well as the ridiculous. Budgeting is not something the govt is good at….just look at the bloated bureaucracy .