The state is under a budget crunch again this year. Last week, they imposed a hiring freeze and a spending freeze. The last I knew, the hiring freeze from 88 was still active. And even though there is a hiring freeze, people still get hired. I guess a hiring freeze makes for good press even if it is fictitious.

As for the spending freeze, that too is a joke. Everyone knew of the spending freeze two weeks before it was announced. So, for the past two weeks, we have been submitting purchasing orders as fast as we can. This defeats the purpose of the freeze since all we are doing is spending the money now that we would have spent over the next 6 months.

Of course, we were not supposed to know about the spending freeze but it is hard to keep secrets in state government. As soon as someone hears about a freeze, they tell other so that no one gets caught without the essentials for operation, including paper for the printers.