Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels announced today that the state will award bonuses to most government workers to recognize their cost-saving efforts over the past several years.Most workers will get one-time bonuses of $500, $750 or $1,000 based on their performance over the last year. State Auditor Tim Berry reported yesterday that the state ended the year with about $1.2 billion in cash reserves, thanks in large part to the efficiency efforts of state workers.Daniels said that the rest of the state's surplus is likely to be socked away rather than spent to replenish cuts to education and health care made over the last year. "This national economy is staggering. Everybody now sees what we’ve been seeing for a long time, which is that this is a very anemic recovery with a lot more clouds," he said. Indiana state employees got a small pay raise in January. There were no pays hike for three years prior to that because of lagging revenues. (Information for this story also came from the Associated Press)
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.