Attorney General Terry Goddard
About half the employees in the Arizona Attorney General’s Office will be forced to take eight days off without pay in the coming months to help trim $1.15 million from the state budget, the office announced today.
The 300 or so employees who make more than $50,000 a year are being told to take the time off before this year’s budget comes to a close at the end of June. The move is part of a broader effort to cut nearly $2 million from the AG’s office as the economy continues to slide, said Megan Erickson, a spokeswoman with the office. It also means the office can avoid more layoffs this year. “This would be one of the better solutions possible,” Erickson said.
Already, 20 of the AG’s staffers were sent packing last month as the state began to realize it would be out of cash long before June if it didn’t make cuts quickly or find a way to bridge the gap. On top of it, Erickson said, employees have been asked to get rid of personal microwaves and refrigerators in their offices to help save energy costs. Staffers are also working with less light; half the lights in the office have been shut off to also save energy. Janitorial services have been cut down, and employees have been asked to keep their work spaces clean.
Despite that, Erickson said there hasn’t been a noticeable impact on morale. “Prior to it actually happening, I would have thought it would have been problematic to morale,” she said. But the economic downturn is currently so pervasive throughout the rest of American life that some of the cutbacks haven’t been so bad, she said. “We’re really glad that not only do I still get to have a job, but also my other coworkers that I really like get to have jobs.”
In a statement sent to media, Attorney General Terry Goddard said the better-paid employees of his office were being told to make the eight-day sacrifice because they were more likely able to handle the impact.
For his part, Goddard is not subject to the mandatory time off, said his chief spokeswoman Anne Hilby. His salary is set by law and cannot be reduced unless there’s a change in the law, she said. However, Goddard is pledging to give an equivalent part of his salary to “a charity in Arizona that supports public safety,” Hilby said today. “I think he felt strongly about making the same sacrifice he was asking of his staff.”