rap #85 05/13/09

FREEHOLDERS OPPOSE MANDATORY FURLOUGHS FOR FEDERALLY FUNDED VETERANS WORKERS

THE OCEAN COUNTY Board of Chosen Freeholders is asking Governor Jon S. Corzine to reconsider the mandatory furlough of some state employees who assist veterans.

Employees at the state’s Disabled Veterans Outreach Program (DVOP) are being forced to take mandatory unpaid furloughs, despite the fact that their salaries are 100 percent funded by the federal government.

“Many veterans, especially those who have returned from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, depend on these offices for job searches and other support services,” said Freeholder Deputy Director Gerry P. Little. “Closing them, even for a day, would be a disservice to our veterans.”

Little, who is also liaison to the Ocean County Veterans Service Bureau, questioned why the furloughs are necessary when the state does not pay the salaries for the DVOP staff.

“The state is not going to save a dime,” he said. “We’ve been told by some state officials that there would be too many ‘administrative’ problems in trying to keep the offices open. I say the needs of our brave men and women who fought and sacrificed so much for our state and nation must come before any ‘administrative’ difficulties.”

Little and Freeholder Director John C. Bartlett Jr. penned a letter to Corzine asking him to reconsider the furloughs.

“Today we join with the New Jersey Association of Veterans Service Officers and other veterans advocates in asking you to please reconsider this decision,” they said in the letter.

Bartlett expressed concern that the furloughs could result in the federal government cutting the budget for New Jersey’s DVOP program.

“New Jersey has already lost more than $2 million in federal funding for DVOP in recent years,” he said. “The loss of still more funding could be catastrophic.”

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