Don’t Touch My Holidays!

Another example of the “cuts are good…as long as they don’t impact me” attitude.

From today’s Joplin Globe (emphasis is mine):

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri state employees will still have days off for the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman, but they will have to be at work the day after Thanksgiving.

Cash-strapped and facing the possibility of greater budget problems next year, Gov. Jay Nixon had called for canceling state holidays honoring the two presidents and ending the traditional day off governors had granted after Thanksgiving.

But the Missouri House refused to approve the legislation needed to cancel the presidential holidays before the session ended Friday. Nixon said he plans to keep state government open after Thanksgiving and warned that preserving the other holidays will force deeper state budget cuts.

“Clearly, we will get rid of the Friday after Thanksgiving,” he said. “People, I think, can take a vacation day.”

House Minority Leader Paul LeVota, who represents the city where Truman lived, said Democrats had been divided on whether to cut holidays. State workers, meanwhile, fired off dozens of e-mails to the governor objecting to eliminating the holidays and suggesting alternate cost-cutting moves.

“I personally had a little hard time getting rid of Harry Truman’s holiday — I’m from Independence, Missouri.” LeVota said. “We had some diverse views on that. What we continue to try to say is, we need to look at things in a balanced approach.”