About 100,000 unionized state workers will start getting a day of unpaid furlough each week under a plan announced Tuesday by Gov. David Paterson. "I think the collective sacrifice is preferable to individual layoffs at this time," the Democratic governor said of his plan, unprecedented for New York. Paterson had asked the Legislature to approve the furloughs in a separate bill last week that never made it to the floor of the Senate or Assembly. Now Paterson said he will include furloughs in his weekly emergency spending bill, which the Legislature must accept or reject in its entirety.
