2011 Legislative Session Results

I used to be one of those people who didn't even know when Legislative Session was, let alone cared about it. But one of the joys of being employed by a branch of the State government is that the decisions they make up on the hill directly affect my daily life. It affects the way I do my job and my ability to do it. Every year there are some things proposed that scare me, and this year was particularly frightening. But now that the session is over I can breathe again. Here's what I was keeping an eye on this year:

1. A bill proposed to change the State work week back to five days. The wording in the bill specified that each division would have to have at least one branch open for at least 9 hours on each weekday. This bill passed, but I'm not entirely sure how it will affect my division. Driver License is technically already in compliance with what the bill specified; we have two offices that are open 10 hours, mon-fri. While I'm sure the Governor will want to reopen the other licensing offices on fridays, I'm hoping that my office (and my schedule) will not be affected by this.

2. Legislature approved an increase in our insurance premiums. Specifically, the premiums we pay for medical and dental coverage will double. I'm not looking forward to this, but it could be worse. At least the benefits themselves aren't being cut, like last year.

and last but not least...

3. Legislature had actually proposed a bill to take away State employee's sick leave. This would have cut our earned leave time in half. While I won't say what I actually think about this on here (cause I could lose my job for doing so) I will state the obvious that I did not support it. But guess what: IT DIDN'T PASS! That's right! I get to keep the leave that I earn and am entitled to. yay!

There are some other bills proposed that would affect that nature of my job, but we haven't received an announcement as to whether they have pass, let alone how they would be implemented. I'm sure it will make my job much more interesting, as always. But all in all I'd say this session was a victory for me. I came out of it with a few bumps and bruises and scratches, but with no major injury. :)