How have Southeast refuges dealt with budget shortfalls in the recent past?
Operating margins declined to five percent in 2003 for Southeast refuges and it became difficult to cover fixed cost (salaries and benefits) on some stations. To increase the operating margin and meet basic needs on refuges in the past few years, Southeast refuges abolished 68 permanent positions (seven percent of the total workforce). These job losses came opportunistically – when vacancies occurred, they were not filled – thus creating inequities in our regional refuge workforce.The workforce plan reviewed the current workforce distribution and recommended cuts where appropriate to realign staff fairly within budget allotments. This will help better position Southeast refuges for the proposed flat or declining budgets which are expected over the next three years.
