Nixon budget eliminates 200 state jobs

Kris Hilgedeck of the Jefferson City News-Tribune offers an examination of Gov. Jay Nixon's budget, with proper emphasis placed on the fact that 200 workers will lose their jobs:

Among those withholds -- which the governor's office is calling expenditure restrictions -- is $60 million in "salaries, expenses, contracts and grants."

Nixon said about 200 additional positions will be eliminated across the state. That figure is on top of the 1,244 positions trimmed from the budget by the deliberations of the General Assembly last spring, and at the behest of the governor in January. Most of the 1,244 jobs were cut by attrition, either through planned retirements or other vacancies.

However, the 200 jobs are likely to be real people, not positions. "Many are real bodies throughout the state," he said, noting the governor's office will be meeting with state department leaders in the coming weeks to make those decisions.