Jackson Free Press

Brenda Scott, president of the Mississippi Alliance of State Employees CWA/AFL-CIO, is spreading the word about Gov. Haley Barbour's proposed cuts to the state budget. Those cuts could affect not only current employees, but retirees as well, she told Delta Democrat Times yesterday.

"It's time that people really begin to look at some of the cuts he is proposing," Scott told the paper. "These cuts are going to hurt state employees greatly."

Among the cost-cutting measures proposed by governor, Scott said, is to remove state employees from the protection of the State Personnel Board, and to move the rising cost of the state's retirement system on to employees, resulting in small paychecks. She also indicated that Barbour's proposal raises the cost of retiree's insurance premiums by 15 percent over the next four years.

"I'm trying to get the word out to everyone that these cuts aren't good for the state," Scott said. "We're planning some things for January that will hopefully make him see the mistake that he's about to make."

Previous Commentsshow

Does she have any constructive ideas as how to avert the budget crisis, then? I understand she works for the union, so that's her first priority, but I have a hard time lending credit to her claims if she doesn't offer up an alternative solution to the Governor's, and just continually discounts others' ideas.

RobbieR

Dec 17 2009

With due respect to Ms. Scott, she lost me back when she supported the union-busting Frank Melton. Not that I'm always a fan of unions -- depends -- but the fact that a union leader could get caught up in his scam is more than I can imagine. With the inefficiencies in state government, I'm pretty sure there are jobs that can be cut. I doubt they'll be in Barbour's pet areas, though. We should start with anyone who tells us that it will take two weeks to provide us a document. These are people with some serious time-management problems on their hands.

DonnaLadd

Dec 17 2009