Alec Schaffer
aschaff3@uwyo.edu
The City of Laramie announced a hiring freeze on Friday, which went into effect Monday; this is following the recent state-hiring freeze.
The goal of the city-freeze is to prevent later budget shortcomings, City Manager Janine Jordan said.
“A hiring freeze will assist the city in meeting the fiscal challenges that seem certain for the upcoming fiscal biennium,” Jordan said in a press release.
In light of the recent state financial crisis, the Wyoming legislator is likely to decrease the amount of state shared revenue, which for Laramie, state shared revenue makes up the majority of its revenue, Jordan said.
This could mean during the 2015 fiscal year Laramie will be receiving $865,023 less than previously planned, according to the 2015 legislature Direction to Joint Revenue Committee for interim study.
“The fiscal outlook for the next biennium is bleak given the forthcoming challenges to the state’s budget stemming from the downturn in energy and mineral industry,” Jordan said. “The City of Laramie must plan for a decrease in state-shared revenue. In addition sales and use tax collections continue to be sluggish.”
However, the hiring freeze has previsions that allow for a position to be filled if a significant decrease in a service the city is legally mandated to provide or a deleterious effect on public safety, Lori Curry, Laramie human resource director, said.
“Recruitments actively underway as of the effective [October 26], may proceed until filled,” Jordan said.
At this point in time no date has been set for when the hiring freeze will be taken out of effect and the budget for this fiscal term has already been set. However, the city will decide on the budget for the next fiscal term in the spring, where if warranted it will make additional cuts or potentially left the hiring freeze if warranted.
“The council will review and evaluate many more reductions – if it’s as bad as 2010 anything is up for reduction,” Jordan said.
The hiring freeze does not affect any jobs currently listed for the City of Laramie, and the positions will be continued to fill, Jordan said. She added the city will still fill jobs that are legally mandated or have an effect on public safety and staff is able to petition for exemptions if the position meets specific criteria.
