University system employees will be furloughed six days

Take, Take, Take, Take! Tax revenues are down. So.... let's have another tax free weekend. We have idiots running things up there. This is another good idea to boost the state's economy -Not!

How many football, baseball and basketball games will be cut? Oh wait, I forgot, the player's salaries are paid by the alumni. Go Dawgs!

will the Regents be expected to work those six days with no pay? In fact, seeing as their salaries for whatever job they may hold are probably outrageously inflated, I think they should incur twice as many furloughed days.

Didn't Roy Barnes lose his reelection bid for messing with education? Although good old Sonny will be back to running his fertilizer business after this term, he is certainly making things harder for a Republican to get elected to governor. Any Republican candidate for governor needs to distance him/herself as far as possible from Sonnyboy.

[This is a letter I had published in the Athens Banner Herald last week. I wanted to share it with Chronicle readers, since we're all in the budget crisis together].........................................
............. Boost state fuel tax..........
Georgia is the gateway to Florida for the whole country, and the gateway to the whole country for Floridians. We are the elbow for most east-west traffic in the country.

For too long, we have been a doormat as out-of state-travelers and truckers pound our infrastructure and crowd our roads. We need to turn this problem into a solution.

I propose that Georgia implement a state-wide 10-cent per gallon tax on gasoline and diesel fuel. Simultaneously, we should lower or eliminate our state income tax to offset the burden to Georgia residents.

The net revenue from out-of-state through-traffic generated by a 10-cent per gallon fuel tax should be enough largely to solve our budget shortfall. We deserve this contribution from out-of-state drivers who use our transportation system.

Please forward this to your state representative and to the governor.

If you think this is bad, imagine what it will be like when socialism takes hold under Obama. To prod your imagination, consider:

North Korea=Socialism

South Kores=Capitalism

Do you get the point?

So let me see if i have this right. You would like for everyone in gerogia pay 10 cent more for gas and diesel. Now you say that would solve our budget. Now if it does go your way then i will have to raise my fee for my crop the trucks it and then they will pass to cost on to you. What will that save? Now you also may say that you charge only those out of state the 10 cents. Do i smell a law suit?

Good idea chip but the farmers who control the state would shoot this down because its gonna cost them to much money. Farmers run this state large metro areas need to stand up. Pick up truck drivers don't have to wear seat belts because some farmer said he couldn't reach his spit cup.

The revenue from the tax would go to the state to help with the budget. I suggested that money above what's needed come back to GA residents through lower state sales tax.

I will take the 6 versus the 10 as a state worker I am having to take for the next two years. If it will be like it is here, there is a percentage taken from you pay each payperiod which will equate to 6 days without pay. We can take 10 days off that have already been prorated at any time during the fiscal year. I am only my third day this FY and have noticed about $50 less each pay. $50 is $50 in these days and times! I understand how you feel Georgia.

If we all cut back a little, Everyone will keep jobs. I do not have a problem with this. I am blessed to keep my job. So quit whining people!

I don't understand why MCG doesn't just close it's doors for a few extra days around the Christmas holidays and/or Master's week. ASU - just up the road - takes these holidays and the walls don't cave in. When the state ran the hospital, I can understand it was unfair to allow some workers the time off and not others. Now that the hospital is private, there is just no reason. Take away MCG employees' 3 Unscheduled Holidays each year, give them the two weeks at Christmas and one week at Masters time. The money savings on energy and other utilities alone would be astounding! MCG takes enough from its employees already without making them take leave without pay in the form of a furlough. Insurance premiums are going to increase, but the employees will get less money? At what point does someone say enough is enough - make the fat cats in ATL take a pay cut!

I agree with Shugirl, I am an MCG employee and i mean really, i can rattle 10 things off the top of my head that can save cost BESIDES furloughs. We pay to park, insurance is high, moral is low, c'mon GA, get it together!!!!

First off, I wanted to point out how much of an idiot CapitalistBill is. He obviously doesn't understand the word socialism. I invite him to check out a book. Second. I wonder why noone ever asked those Presidents of those colleges making 6 digits to volunteer away some of thier salaries, or even those department directors making near 100k. It seems they should offer up a chunk of thier money so that the hard workers at the bottom, those making between 25k and 35k can continue to have good health coverage as well as be able to take care of thier families. I work for one of these "institutions" and I can verify that its those on the bottom rung who work the hardest, for the least respect, and for the least pay. Why do all those employees have to suffer when funding could just as easily be diverted from sports teams (A game?! What a waste!) or from the elistist upper crust of university management. This furlough will not hurt the elite of the institution. In fact, perhaps the more you make, the more of these furlough days you should volunteer. That way if one of thier morgages goes into default we can just tell them they should learn to live within thier means.

I want to know when welfare receipients and others getting government checks are going to get furloughed? Why is it just the working person who feels the pinch?

Do you really want to take the money from people on welfare? Honestly? You find people who are hurting the most and take what little they have and just see what happens. You must be pushing people toward revolution? I just don't understand why more people aren't asking for money from pro-athletes, ceos, and movie stars. Its always "take from the needy so I can stay comfortably middle class". You, Waymore, are owned by those above you and would take from those beneath to maintain your place? Its disgusting when you stop to think about it. If it was up to me, it would be time to go Robin Hood on some of these corporations. Not the opposite.

There will come a time when the people that put up with the headaches and work hard every day to pay their way will get tired of having more taken away from their checks so able-bodied people can sit at home and draw a check, get food stamps and live off of the system. I am not talking about people who are elderly or disabled. I am talking about the people in the prepay phone lines at Verizon in the middle of the day, the people at the check cashing centers at the first of the month, the people who live to live off of someone else. Just saying,,,,, we can't continue to support those people and those numbers are growing and the number of people contributing is dwindling. Heck, when I can earn about as much staying at home then why bother.

Waymore---AMEN!

It is ridiculous, but at least you have a job.

Will the receptions be curtailed at MCG during this time? What I mean is the parties that MD's, Administrators, etc. attend with the jumbo shrimp, beer, desserts, etc. And what about the perks that the president receives. You know, the little favors that support services gives him. He will need someone to ferry he and his family around to all of those holiday parties.Is the president of the college still required to reside at 920 Milledge Road? If so, that is one heck of a money pit and would be a great way to cut expenses. What about the lavish furniture in the administrative offices. If you only knew. Shall I say more????

What about graduation ceremonies? Look at the money spent here. It's nice to have a big extravaganza, but not at the expense of others having to take pay cuts. Mail the students their piece of paper. Of course, have them give you a self-addressed stamped envelope. And the reason for excluding those who make less than $23,000 per year is because they are the support personnel who keep the places running. You know, the ones that provide the perks for the administrators. At one time the president of MCG has his own gardener who took his little dog out for a poop every morning. He didn't wear an MCG uniform. Kind of undercover I guess you could say.

"Employees can also expect changes in their health plan, including higher premiums and an incentive to encourage them to switch to the highest-deductible PPO plan." See what's wrong with healthcare!!!!

People will pay higher premiums and the highest deductibles...you will pay and pay yet YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO GET SICK! You will pay and pay and pay for nothing and the health care execs will laugh all the way to the bank. By the time you pay your full deductible, it will be the next fiscal year and time to start all over again.

Longtime CSRA Res...you said a mouthful! People around here keep doing the same things, expecting different results. You are so right.

perpetual, yes. I do. You want to keep giving handouts without any limitations? Fine..why don't you bleeding hearts that want to play Robin Hood step up to the plate; why don't you give more of your money to those that are "hurting." How many of those they are "hurting" are hurting because of choices they made? I've been working since I was 14 and I am tired of supporting those that are too darn lazy to support themselves. You should step up and pay more. Me? I'm tired of busting my tail so that the imperial federal government can steal from me and redistribute MY money. If those that contribute to society have to feel the sting, and government employees are getting furloughed, then it's only right that anyone getting a goverment check get furloughed!

Waymore, you are a limited person. The people I speak of cannot give any more money to the hurting because it has already been swindled out of them by the powers that be. I too have been working since 14. Do you want a cookie? You had it lucky you had such a late start compared to some people in poorer regions around the country and world. And I wonder how much money you make a year? And I wonder how much you payed in taxes. Check line 56 of you 1040. Do you think you "supported" that many people? I think the "money" that you think is "stolen" is all in your head. What you should see is the top 5% of American population directly controls 85% or more of the nations wealth. No matter what you are earning, you are not that high on the curve my friend. And I am not sure the last time you got downsized, but I have seen many a GA Department of Labor letter showing that even people making 100k get only 8500 bucks before they find a new job. You are just as at risk as the rest of expendable America. And instead of fighting to defend yourself and others around you, you clamor to a false idea that those beneath your income level are lazy or stupid. You are on the wrong side.

Lucky...hahahahahaha...so, Robin Hood, are you and your band of merry brothers (bleeding hearts) willing to give more of your money to the government? Pull your head out of the sand and you will see the ones I am talking about...why should I take care of anyone who quits school, does drugs, has kids they can't afford and refuse to raise properly, and/or continually does things that keep them in the position they are in? Can you list one thing that the welfare system does to foster RESPONSIBILTY? And yes, what I pay in taxes for a year is pretty substantial, it is an amount that could be used to send my child to college for a year...

Perpetual: I agree with you , these people act like, what little they pay in taxes is taking care of someone! If they were allowed to keep what little they pay, they would complain about that. There were taxes before they were born, and there will be taxes after they are dead. They just want something to whine about!!They should have been whinning, when the last president was causing this mess!!!

So, we have two merry men, and I still don't hear either one of them say that they are willing to have MORE taxes taken out of their check.

Posted by Frank I: Their salaries for whatever job they may hold are probably outrageously inflated.... Frank: You are very smart if you know what pay salaries are. $23,000 is very low and you say if they make over that their pay is outrageously inflated. Get a life man.