Laid Off Agriculture Employees: Quinn Broke His Promise
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CBS) -- Some Illinois state Department of Agriculture employees are not only being laid off, but they say Gov. Pat Quinn broke his promise to them.
As WBBM Newsradio's Dave Dahl reports, Brenda Books is only two years short of retirement, and now, she is about to be laid off from her job as a seed inspector.
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"We're talking about Starling, BT, we do all of that testing in that lab," Books said, "and probably for the governor, I think my biggest thing to say to him is, we were promised if we all took eight furlough days last year, we would not get laid off. We all took those eight furlough days, and we're still getting laid off."
Books has 16 colleagues who are also being laid off. She says Quinn has other options for cutting spending.
"There's a lot of, lot of waste in places they're not even looking," she says. In addition to cutting the light and telephone bills, she says the state rents far too much space around Springfield as opposed to owning it.
Books and other state agriculture employees are represented by the Illinois Federation of Public Employees, whose president says there is enough money to keep everybody on through the upcoming veto session, and even next spring, while lawmakers figure something out.
