EXECUTIVE ORDER  82-07

The legislature has enacted and I have signed Substitute Senate Bill No. 4369, which assumes $30,000,000 in savings in the state General Fund as a result of the enactment of Second Substitute House Bill No. 124. However, because of the onerous impact the Second Substitute House Bill No. 124 application would have on the operations of state agencies, I have vetoed that portion of it that would limit all agencies in filling vacancies resulting from attrition. Because much of the savings assumed by Substitute Senate Bill No. 4369 would have been generated by the portion of Second Substitute House Bill No. 124 that I vetoed, it is necessary to generate the $30,000,000 of assumed savings by other means.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, John Spellman, Governor, do hereby institute an expenditure reduction program and hiring freeze to ensure the necessary $30,000,000 savings from the state General Fund. That hiring freeze shall take effect immediately and remain in effect until July 15, 1982. State agencies shall hire no state General Fund-supported staff during the period of the freeze without the specific approval in each instance of the Director of the Office of Financial Management (OFM). In addition, the Director of OFM shall provide to each agency a state General Fund savings target. That target may be attained through employee attrition, early retirement, deferred equipment purchases, or any other similar and appropriate action that is necessary. Such target amounts are to be placed in reserve in order to ensure that the savings are in fact accomplished.

This order is in lieu of an executive order requiring staffing reductions pursuant to RCW 43.88.160(i)(d), which nevertheless may prove necessary if the target savings are not realized.

The Director of OFM will issue further detailed instructions required to implement this order. I fully expect, as did the legislature, that other elected officials will participate fully in this very necessary savings program, and place an appropriate target-savings amount in reserve.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set
my hand and caused the seal of the State of
Washington to be affixed at Olympia this
20th day of April A.D., Nineteen hundred and eighty-two.

John Spellman
Governor of Washington

BY THE GOVERNOR:



Deputy Secretary of State

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