Governor Bill Walker responded to the legislature’s inaction on the budget by sending a message to them loud and clear: layoff notices to the State’s employees. 21,000 of them. House Speaker Mike Chenault is confident that within ten days this will all be resolved. In the meantime, we see this political drama over the budget impasse playing out like a bad soap opera.
Britten Burkhouse says her office at the Department of Health and Social Services was pretty quiet after getting the email from Gov. Bill Walker about potential state layoffs. “I think we were all just dealing with the punch. Recuperating maybe a little bit. It wasn’t a very good thing on a Monday.”
Burkhouse isn’t surprised by the email. The threat of a government shutdown and layoffs has been a possibility since the legislature recessed at the end of April, but she says it makes the situation seem more desperate. She thinks Gov. Walker is doing the best he can, but, “It’s come to the point where maybe he’s using state employees as leverage to kind of get the Legislature to act.”
Mike Lewis has been a state worker for 15 years. He’s the lead courier in mail services. Over the years, he’s made sure Alaskans get their Permanent Fund Dividend checks. He says the potential layoffs are all part of a game. “This is what they do. It’s government. It’s politics. I don’t like politics because of this.” And he doesn’t think there’s anything he can do, like contacting a legislator, to change the situation.
“It’s the big people up there that make all the decisions. I don’t think they care much about the little guys.”
See Full Story at Alaska Public Media
