FONT size=2>FONT size=2>Retirees would be expected to pay 46% of their health care portion cost, as opposed to the 29% they pay now. Sanford says the state would still pay $265 per retiree.State workers will be asked to take two furlough days, taking away two of their 43 paid vacation days. Governor Sanford says, "The sillver cloud, again if there is one, to these tough times, is that maybe it is this kind of budget year that forces the consolidations and the restructurings that we've been talking about for some years now." Lawmakers haven't fully reviewed the plan but some democrats say there are parts of it that they already have problems with."I think it falls way short in his proposal on the cigarette tax," Rep. James Smith says. "It doesn't do enough to simply do a dollar for dollar swap so that essentially the state doesn't progress forward in any way. I mean, we need to have that revenue to draw down additional federal dollars to fund an essential function of government in the area of healthcare." /FONT>
