In Suffolk County, New York, the County Executive Steve Levy is seeking layoffs of 675 in order to help resolve a $120 million budget shortfall. A committee approved the cuts yesterday, and the measure will be submitted for vote by the county legislature next week. 328 of the positions to be eliminated are currently empty, while the rest would be layoffs. Levy originally sought $30 million in concessions from labor unions; the layoffs are an alternative should the concessions never be negotiated. Levy is hoping to get unions to agree to a lag payroll system ? something union officials claim will only worsen the economy further.
See "Levy seeks authority to lay off hundreds of workers", Reid J. Epstein, Newsday, April 21, 2009