State budget cuts hit home for 40-year veteran employee

When Kim Larsen was notified November 8 that a higher up in the Department of Revenue wanted to meet with her at 10 a.m., she was happy.

Two months earlier she had celebrated 40 years as a state employee and had ordered the 40-year pin to which she was entitled. So when the November 8 notice came in, she said, “My thought is he’s finally bringing my pin.”

Instead the supervisor told her she was being relieved of her duties. He watched her pack up all her personal belongings, took possession of the state computer she had been using, took her keys, and “by 10:45 walked me out to my car,” recalled Larsen last week.