Concord Monitor follows state employee negotiations

Lauren Dorgan reports in the Concord Monitor that the state's lead negotiator sees progress in talks with the SEA:

The state's chief negotiator charged with hammering out a new union contract with state employees said yesterday that he hopes to seal a deal within a week, but it's difficult for the state to offer either long-term promises or contract sweeteners amid an ongoing recession and severe budget crunch.

The challenge facing Assistant Secretary of State Tom Manning is eight figures large: The newly passed two-year budget requires the executive branch to lop $25 million over two years off of personnel expenses, either through unpaid furloughs, benefits cuts or - if all else fails - several hundred layoffs on top of the roughly 200 specifically laid out in the budget. Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, has repeatedly described layoffs as his least-preferred option.