50 employees laid off from Grant Wood AEA

CEDAR RAPIDS - State budget cuts are partly to blame for the impending layoffs of 50 workers in Eastern Iowa.

Employees at Grant Wood Area Education Agency were notified of the cuts today. The fifty laid off workers will work through the end of the agency's fiscal year in June.

“The legislature proposed a $10 million cut to the area education agencies. Then the governor came back with a proposal for a $20 million cut,” said spokesman George Held.

Those cuts won't be official until the state lawmakers approve a budget, but employment contracts at the agency require notify employees of layoffs well in advance.

The Grant Wood Area Education Agency is based in Cedar Rapids, but the employment cuts will be spread throughout the seven counties the organization serves.

Slumping state support wasn't the only reason for the cuts. Held also blamed public employee benefit increases, bumps in health insurance costs, expiring federal stimulus funds.

“We were able to keep people employed and tried to fulfill the spirit of the [American Recovery and Reinvestment] law even though we knew that we were going to hit the cliff here,” Held said. “We could keep people employed through the worst of the economic crisis.”

Held also added some of the lost jobs might not be permanent.

“In some cases we may be able to hire some of them back if we have some retirements or vacancies when people move on to other jobs,” he said. “Some of those individuals may be hired back on.”