Coming Soon to Chicago?

Denver is having budget problems - $50 million short last fiscal year, $200 million short next year. Most of this is due to spending on ILLEGAL aliens and falling tax revenues. 

You'll recall that Chicago was staring down the barrel of a $1 billion shortfall and Cook County an additional $200 million, mostly due to the same ILLEGAL alien handouts and falling tax revenues.

Guess how Denver is looking at balancing their budget?

• Denver city leaders are preparing to make "substantial" layoffs in order to deal with a massive budget deficit.

  In May, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced the city was projecting a $50 million budget deficit this year and a $200 million budget deficit next year. Johnston said his administration must consider layoffs to help the city balance next year’s budget.

  “We will have to look at layoffs,” Johnston said. “We do not envision a scenario where it's possible to right-size this budget without that impact on personnel.”

And how is this blue-city $hithole going to accomplish these layoffs?

• City officials said it’s still too early to know how many workers will be laid off. It could depend on whether a proposed personnel rule change is adopted. The city wants to move away from a system that protects workers who have been employed by the city for a long time to a merit-based system.

  Under the current rule, senior employees can “bump” less-tenured employees to avoid being laid off. Kathy Nesbitt, executive director of Denver’s Office of Human Resources, said the current rule causes significant delays in the layoff process. “It also fails to ensure that we have the very best talent,” Nesbitt said.

  The proposed new rule aims to evaluate employees based on four key criteria: performance ratings, skills, abilities, and length of service. Nesbitt said this approach will help the city retain the most talented and capable employees while meeting budget reduction goals. It would also make it easier to lay off senior employees.

"Senior employees" are the ones at the top of the pay scale.

"Merit" means who can suck ass (or other sexual organs) the hardest.

So Contracts and seniority might mean very little - in Denver at least - very shortly. 

And you can bet Conehead and Prickwrinkle will be watching the situation very closely.