http://www.statenews.com Some East Lansing officials are making financial sacrifices to help maintain the city budget by taking five furlough days. The unpaid furlough days were not mandatory for city officials, but 67 nonunionized city employees volunteered to take the days in the upcoming fiscal year. en-us Gryphon 2.2.3b-tsn (woodward)/Foundry5 Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:44:50 -0400 webmaster@statenews.com http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41706 Thanks state workers for being man enough to take unpaid days off, and not whining (not loudly at least) about it. Its rough all over, and we appreciate your good faith. Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:02:19 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41706 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41729 We need to ask why MSU isn’t following suit? Aren’t they state workers? Aren’t they state funded? Shouldn’t all the state funded schools take some “furlough” days? One would think with all the automotive lay-offs, government cut-backs, and down economy that MSU would lead the state institutions and announce some furlough days, but as of yet NOTHING! Come on State, do the right thing! Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:30:20 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41729 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41752 Wow! these bureaucrats are taking 5 furlough days to make themselves look noble and charitable. Meanwhile they continue to screw struggling students out of money. I am not impressed with this act of selflessness due to the all too often hypocrisy of the city. I have recently been a victim of the city of East Lansing’s iron fist, being hit with a $1000 fine for “over occupancy” by having one person sleep in our FINISHED basement for a couple of weeks. The city says by law you cannot have more than 3 “unrelated” people living in the house due to fire hazard and other safety concerns. However, if we were all related and had 10 people living there, safety is no longer an issue. What? The clear money grab of over occupancy citations as well as other similar violations aimed at bullying students out of large amounts of dollars is downright wrong. Lets remember who makes this city a thriving town, brings business owners here, and pays most of the salaries of these crooks in office. Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:07:46 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41752 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41757 As nice as this “voluntary” furlough may seem, the reality is I’m not so sure that it wasn’t more coerced. It would be interesting to hear how the 9 City Officials actually feel. And if the City wants to save $60,000, a nice place to start would be with the bonuses of the City Manager, Police Chief, head of HR and possibly others. The City of East Lansing is good at appearances but this story seems solely a publicity stunt that was handed to an MSU reporter. Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:44:50 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41757