Hometown News: State Layoffs Coming?

Governor David Paterson may be dropping the hammer on state workers. The governor is considering the layoff of nearly nine-thousand government employees, and blaming the state's public labor unions for refusing to accept concessions at the bargaining table. However, state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is confident the state won't go through with the first government layoffs since the 1990s. The governor is seeking a pay freeze and a one-week furlough, but unions are fighting to keep a three-percent salary increase this year. The state currently employs 200-thousand workers.