"It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it..."

...working 9 to 5."

Well, hopefully I get to keep doing so....

I don't know if you've heard or not, but the economy isn't doing so hot right now. Many companies are downsizing across the nation. Surprisingly, SoDak has felt the crunch too, though we were able to stave it off for a little while. Today, the governor's new budget proposal came out and it has my co-workers and I worried.

I work for Cooperative Extension which is part of the College of Ag. & Bio which is part of SDSU which is part of the Board of Regents. The BOR budget has been cut $5.5 million. Of that, Extension is being cut $1 million. That is almost 20% of that cut, which is a decent percentage in my mind.

The problem comes in that I am the 4th newest person to be hired state-wide and the 2nd newest in my specific position. I don't have much along the lines of seniority, and my area of the state is fairly well covered with youth development educators. $1 million is a lot of money and I think the only way to cut that amount is to cut people--but I certainly hope I am wrong. The BOR announced today that they are doing away with 5 positions in the area of accounting and are completely closing the School for the Deaf--that is a lot of jobs that just vanished.

So here, I am, worrying. Plus, the Post Office in Kadoka lost my student loan statement for the month, so I got a late fee. I am now officially upset.