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By JOHN GOOLRICK
Rappahannock New* Contributing Writer
Paul W. Timmereck, Virginia’s Finance Secretary, may not have been as shrewd about forecasting state revenues, but his commentary about Gov. Wilder’s plan to cut a projected $1.4 billion deficit was right on the mark.
“There’s something in the recommendations. . .for everybody to object to,” said Sec, Timmereck soon after Wilder had unveiled his drastic plan to curb government spending and cut aid to localities and education.
Since the Governor had already ruled out tax increases to shrink the deficit, some kind of painful cuts were the only answer left. Yet that doesn’t make them the least bit more palatable to those who must suffer them.
The state’s thousands of employees, for instance, are unhappy with the suggestions and for more than 1,000 of them the plan will mean losing their jobs.
A nurse with the Virginia Department of Health told this columnist when she learned she would not get the raise next January the General Assembly had voted earlier, “I think it’s very unfair. They’re going to increase what we pay for health benefits in January and that means that come the first of the year I’ll actually make $80 a month less. ”
Since she and her husband have just bought a house, the nurse noted, they’re going to feel a severe pinch. “I’m already starting to look around for something else. . .you can’t take the state’s word for anything.”
Another state employee who
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