Furloughs, Cuts Well-Known To Private Sector

Remember when Virginia was known for its top-notch colleges and smooth roadways to reach them? Today, its roads are patched like a quilt and its colleges are on the chopping block.

But mired in an on-going recession and facing another $1.5 billion chasm, Virginia long ago ran out of easy options.

On Tuesday, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced that nearly 600 state employees will lose their jobs, and state-supported colleges and universities will lose up to 15 percent of their state dollars.

His aim is to fill a gaping hole in the state budget due to the rotten economy and the toll it’s taken on tax collections statewide. He also announced that state employees will take an unpaid day off on the Friday before Memorial Day in 2010.  This will not affect police and emergency crews.

To our friends who work in government: Welcome to life in the private sector. “Furlough” might be a new word to government employees in Virginia, but the rest of us – their private sector brethren whose taxes pay for government workers’ jobs – have been taking forced, unpaid leave for at least a year now.

Aside from the obvious fact that Kaine will be gone from state office in 2010 and the expected bucking by state employees and their unions, we ask: Why wait? There’s plenty of cost cutting needed right now.

Kaine’s announcement set the two challengers for his seat – Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrat R. Creigh Deeds – to squabbling about who could better handle the crisis. Deeds accused McDonnell of turning his back on education needs. McDonnell tried to stay focused on creating more jobs, an obvious need.

Thank goodness Virginia requires a balanced budget or many lawmakers would want to keep spending and still refuse to see how bad the economy has grown. Even after cutting $6 billion since 2007, Kaine still has a $1.5 billion hole to plug.

Government, with its power to tax, is too often too slow to cut. We say it’s taken too long to consider additional job cuts or furloughs for government employees, whose ranks have grown while private sector jobs have dwindled. This trend is unsustainable, period, and particularly so in a protracted recession.

McDonnell frequently pats himself on the back for having cut his budget and returning his state car while attorney general. We praised him for frugality at the time, but the cuts were obvious ones. Having a government car had grown to be considered a norm in an economy that could not sustain it. It was the right and obvious thing to tighten his budget and return a perk.

The recession has pushed Virginia, and other states, to financial crisis. That means jobs cuts and work furloughs must be considered to save other positions or to reduce overall costs. The private sector has been struggling and hurting more than government and that is an imbalance that needs to be righted.

We cannot spend what we don’t have. The government should be a reflection of the people and after more than two years of financial straits, the people no longer have the jobs and the financial ability to support expansive government.

Government must continue to reduce its spending, even though it is painful and even if that includes cutting positions or increased furlough time.

Being slow to take action only prolongs the pain, and causes the debt to grow, for all of us.