New Hampshire Governor John Lynch has announced plans to cut $140 million out of the state budget over the next year and a half, a move which he says will unfortunately make layoffs inevitable. 200 employees have been laid off this year already, most in response to a union rejection of proposed furlough time, but some forced by a prison closure and program cuts. Lynch says slow revenues, increased demand for social services, and a Supreme Court insurance ruling mean that money must be cut, and has asked departments to cut their budgets by 2% this year, and by 8% next year. The Governor says departments will begin selecting possible areas for cutbacks, and will submit them to him over the next few weeks, at which point he will begin implementing the layoffs.
See "NH gov: $140M in budget cuts, layoffs unavoidable", Norma Love, The Boston Globe, February 10, 2010