PHOENIX -- Arizonans could find themselves with few places to register
their vehicles or get a new licenses -- and nowhere along state roads
to take a pit stop -- if lawmakers take more money from the Department
of Transportation budget, its director is warning.
In a memo to the
governor's office John Halikowski pointed out that his original $398
million in state revenues already was cut to $320 million. ADOT already
has announced it will close a dozen of its Motor Vehicle Division
offices for the time being, though which ones are still being decided.
And 13 of the state's 18 rest areas are going to be blockaded beginning next month.
Halikowski
said taking another 15 percent of that -- the target Gov. Jan Brewer
gave to all of her agencies -- would trim his funding to just $260
million. At that point, he said, more than half of the agency's 4,000
employees would be laid off, as his agency would have only six months
to pare $60 million in expenses.
