Arizona transportation agency says spending cuts would mean layoffs, closure of rest areas

The Arizona Department of Transportation would lay off at least half its staff and close all remaining rest areas and nearly all Motor Vehicle Division field offices if spending cuts are chosen to close a big budget gap, the department said in a new report.

The department has already taken a 20 percent budget cut for the fiscal year, prompting it to impose cost-cutting measures that include closing most rest areas and one in five MVD offices. But the report released late Monday said the impact from an additional 15 percent cut would go much farther.

The report was one of the last due from a major agency under Gov. Jan Brewer's September directive that agencies describe impacts if lawmakers insist on a cuts-only approach to closing the state's midyear budget gap. Brewer is pitching a temporary sales tax increase to raise state revenue and reduce the size of budget cuts.

Other agencies' reports also cited deep impacts if 15 percent cuts are made, including closure of the state parks system, slashed programs for behavioral health, early releases for thousands of prison inmates and layoffs of hundreds of Department of Public Safety officers.

According to the ADOT report, "all but a few" of the 61 MVD offices would be closed, and all rest area operations would be suspended.

Other impacts listed in the report include suspension of all highway maintenance work except for emergency responses, reduced frequencies of snowplowing and layoffs of up to 2,000 to 2,400 employees _ roughly 50 percent to 60 percent of the department's current work force.

The department previously eliminated 450 jobs through attrition.

ADOT also said it would be difficult to maintain current operations of the state-owned Grand Canyon Airport and Arizona Highways magazine, the monthly publication whose glossy photos promote the state's natural beauty.

Because the hypothetical 15 percent cut would come roughly halfway through the fiscal year that began July 1, it would actually amount to a 30 percent cut of funding still unspent, the report said.

"Staffing cuts of this size are unprecedented, and if implemented, would be devastating to the department, our employees and our customers," Director John Halikowski wrote.

The midyear budget shortfall had been estimated at $1.5 billion, but legislative budget analysts last week raised their projection to $2 billion, or roughly a fifth of a budget that includes $1.1 billion funded through federal stimulus dollars.