Friday final day for some state workers

Friday will be the last day on the job for more than 200 employees of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

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255 state workers are receiving pink slips this week. Governor Rendell made the announcement during an appearance at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center in Dauphin County. The layoffs come from ten departments, though agriculture was hardest-hit, with 57 jobs eliminated. Rendell says there may be another round of layoffs, depending on how budget talks go.

Rendell: Will there be a chance that these people will be hired back? Sure, but that depends on, a) how the eventual budget works out. If the eventual budget has significantly more cuts in it, there will have to be hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands, more layoffs.

The employees will receive pay through August 28th, though most will leave their jobs on Friday. Before making the announcement, Rendell made the case for increased autism services funding. There's a wide gap between his line item, and the funding level favored by Senate Republicans. They want to spend 14.8 million dollars, and he's asking for 20.5. Rendell blue-lined the GOP amount in last week's bridge budget.