Vilsack warns of layoffs if Republicans cut state budget

Governor Tom Vilsack says some state workers will have to be laid-off or furloughed if Republicans intend to cut 40-million dollars from this year’s state budget.Republican legislators have set some areas of the state budget off limits for cutting — spending on K-through-12 education, for example. Vilsack wants the G-O-P to get specific and tell him which state services they want to cut. Vilsack is accusing the Republicans of trying to carve into the bone of the state budget in order to come up with more money for tax cuts.Vilsack says there’s plenty of money to pay bills and make it through the fiscal year, which ends June 30th, because a 150-million dollar cushion was built into the budget last year.