Governor Threatens At Least 1,000 State Worker Layoffs

At a press conference this afternoon, Gov. Rendell said it's clear the House and Senate will not complete work on a table games bill this week. The House will go home today after putting the table games bill in the Rules Committee. The Senate went home yesterday.
As a result, if the General Assembly does not pass table games by January 8, he said he will be forced to cut another $250 million from the budget which will come out of General Government Operations and descretionary grant programs. That's the amount table games were projected to contribute to the budget.
The Governor said the projected cuts to General Government line items will require the layoff of at least 1,000 state employees. He gave no details on which state agencies would be affected.
These cuts are on top of an additional $170 million in cuts Gov. Rendell ordered as a result of his mid-year budget review.
The House and Senate are scheduled to return for the beginning of session next year on January 5, but are not scheduled to begin voting session until the week of January 25.
He also said he will sign non-preferred appropriations bills for Penn State, Pitt and the state-related universities, but he would blue line (cut) the remaining non-preferred appropriations bills on his desk by from 12.8 to 50 percent.