OREGON STATE WORKER UNION PACTS COME IN 42 MILL OVER BUDGET

Frustrated Republican legislators are accusing Governor Kitzhaber’s negotiating team of giving away the store in labor contract talks.  The state budget was 3.5 billion dollars in the hole to start with last session, so legislators hoped to hold the line on salaries and benefits for unionized state workers.  But legislators don’t negotiate with state worker unions, which strongly backed Kitzhaber for Governor—the Governor’s office negotiates the salary and benefit deal with the unions that heavily financed his campaign.  The deal hikes the total cost to the state for its unionized workers by about seven and a half percent….and it came in 42 million dollars over budget.  A spokesman for the Governor called the deal ‘a reasonable settlement’. The ‘reasonable settlement’–42 million dollars over budget–coupled with news that recession-battered state revenues are already 200 million dollars short of budget estimates may force legislators to cut further into state programs when they meet in February.

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