Public Workers May Face Cost Of Deficit Cuts Imposed By Congress

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The termination notice hit Irene Wilson like a sucker punch: “It is with deep regret that I must inform you,” it read, “that your position as a nurse for Connecticut Valley Hospital Merritt Hall Addiction Services, Division of Mental Health, is being eliminated.”

Wilson, 56, received the pink slip after Governor Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, ordered 3,000 job cuts in July when unions failed to approve concessions to help fill a $3.26 billion projected deficit in the state’s $18.7 billion general-fund budget for fiscal 2012.

“It was hard not to get caught up in all the what-ifs,” Wilson, who helps wean indigent residents off alcohol, valium and heroin, said in a telephone interview from Middletown. “What if I can’t pay my mortgage? What if I can’t pay my bills?”

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