Official says more budget cuts, layoffs expected

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Some state employees are likely to lose their jobs when the government announces a new round of budget cuts today, Missouri's budget director said.

The cuts are expected to affect almost all state agencies.

"There will be layoffs, but we're trying to minimize the number of layoffs" by eliminating positions that already are vacant, budget director Linda Luebbering said Tuesday. "We're not talking about a huge number. We're not talking thousands."

Missouri has about 65,000 employees and a budget of $18.9 billion for its fiscal year that runs through June 30.

The cuts are being made because state revenue are estimated to be at least $300 million short of what is needed to run state government through the end of the fiscal year.

Gov. Bob Holden plans to let Luebbering break the bad news during a news conference this morning. Holden, who will review the final cuts, does not plan to attend the announcement.

But "there won't be cuts that he's not aware of," said Holden spokeswoman Mary Still. Holden personally handled the announcements about previous state budget cuts.

Some cuts already have occurred.

For example, the Department of Health and Human Services eliminated 17 positions, effective Tuesday, from its Division of Environmental Health and Communicable Disease Prevention.

One of those positions already was vacant, 12 employees have found work elsewhere within the division and two are going to work for local health agencies, said health department spokeswoman Nancy Gonder.

Health department employees are concerned about how they will be affected by additional cuts, Gonder said, because "all of us have been hearing about how tight the budget situation is."

Meanwhile, the Missouri National Guard said it will close a boot camp for troubled youths, canceling a session that was to begin Jan. 18. The four-year-old ShowMe Challenge program based at Camp Clark in Nevada plans to cut all 44 of its staff positions.

State agencies have been expecting -- and planning for -- budget cuts for the past couple of months. But today's announcement may not be the end of the cuts.

"It is possible that we would have to do additional reductions depending on the economy, if things get worse than they are now," Luebbering said. "We are being gloomy, but it is possible that we could be even gloomier."

Sen. John Russell, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the announcement of more cuts is no surprise. He said the cuts will have an impact on lawmakers when they return to work Jan. 8.

"Obviously, the announcement of this magnitude will put some pressure on us," said Russell, R-Lebanon. "I think it really was inevitable. When we finished in May, we did the best we could with what we had to work with and we still came up short."

Lawmakers will be working on the fiscal 2004 budget, which actually begins July 1, 2003. Luebbering estimated that the state would need $1 billion just to keep pace with the current budget and the growing spending demands for such things as prisons and the state's Medicaid program.

Missouri has to make up about $436 million for next year's budget because lawmakers used one-time funds to patch up the current budget.