Arizona Closed for Business, Again

Press Release

Furlough Day for State Workers

Most of state government in Arizona is closed for business today, with nearly 30,000 state employees forced to take another mandatory and unpaid furlough day.

This is the third of 12 mandatory unpaid furlough days state workers are required to take between July of this year and June of 2012 (FY 2011 and 2012). During these furlough days, employees are not permitted to do any work on behalf of the state or permitted to receive any salary compensation from the state. (State of Arizona Mandatory Furlough Program-Frequently Asked Questions, published by the Arizona Department of Administration, 8/25/2010 [PDF])

"Jan Brewer has had three chances to balance Arizona's state budget and she has failed each time," said Attorney General Terry Goddard. "Her poor choices, bad budget management and the fact that she is literally driving business away from Arizona is making this recession even harder on people who are, in the majority of cases, already having a difficult time getting by."

Furloughs do not solve Arizona's deep budget problem. Following the last mandatory furlough day, on August 20, the Arizona Department of Economic Security was forced to pay as many as 175 workers time-and-a-half overtime compensation to come in on Saturday, in order to manage the backload from the day of missed work.

"The situation at the Department of Economic Security alone is appalling," Goddard continued. "Where is the logic in sending employees home for a mandatory furlough day, then calling them back the following day--on a Saturday--and paying them 50 percent more in overtime to make up for the lost day of work? When you consider that, because of her ill-advised cut and borrow approach to budgeting, Arizona is adding new debt at the rate of $200 million per month, it makes even less sense."

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