Georgians Asked to Fill In for Laid-Off State Workers

A welfare office in Georgia began asking for volunteers Tuesday to fill in for furloughed state workers--the latest victims of budget breakdowns in state capitols around the nation.

In Maine, the Legislature on Tuesday passed a $3.2 million two-year budget in a major step toward ending a stalemate that has idled most government agencies.

Republican Gov. John R. McKernan Jr. indicated he would sign the budget if lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled Legislature overhauled Maine’s workers’ compensation system.

“Obviously, I’m not going to sign the budget until I have seen that language,” McKernan said.

Bitter negotiations continued in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Illinois--all states that have been operating without budgets since the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1. State workers grew angrier at the delays, which have left some without paychecks and some temporarily without jobs.

Unlike the other hamstrung states, Georgia had a budget in place at the start of the fiscal year. It was approved by the Legislature in March. Since then, the state’s economy has remained more sluggish than expected--far worse than the anticipated 6% growth a year--and Gov. Zell Miller was forced to find ways to cut spending by up to $400 million.

His response includes a freeze on hiring, travel and new programs, plus the furlough program, which requires each of the state’s 100,000 employees to take off one day each month without pay. The furloughs began in some offices Tuesday.

At a welfare office in Clayton County, just south of Atlanta, the call went out for volunteers to help with backlogs. The furloughs have not yet begun there.

“We’ve had a couple of phone calls this morning,” said Cathy Ratti, an administrator.

The office, normally staffed by 130 workers, will lose 10 to 12 employees a day during the next two weeks while administrators juggle schedules to fit a month’s worth of furloughs into two weeks.

The off days will cause a paperwork jam that will slow applications for food stamps, Medicaid and other services, Ratti said.