JEFFERSON CITY - The Missouri Republican Party said today that Gov. Holden?s
newly exposed decision to resume hiring more state employees will inflate an
already bloated bureaucracy while taking much-needed money away from
teachers and students in Missouri classrooms.

"Our fiscally responsible Legislature trimmed fat from state agencies and
opened the door to Missouri?s economic recovery by defeating Holden?s
obsessive push for job-killing new taxes," said Paul Sloca, communications
director for the Missouri Republican Party. "Now Holden wants to put the fat
back in."

The decision to lift the hiring freeze is disturbing given that neighboring
Illinois, with a population of more than 12 million people, has 63,000 state
employees while Missouri, with a population of 5.5 million people, employs
more than 64,000 state workers.

"The reason for this move by Holden is obvious ? it?s a vote-buying ploy
aimed at his biggest benefactors, the public employee union bosses," Sloca
said. "Our Legislature was able to stop Holden?s nearly crazed pursuit of
job-killing taxes, but we can?t stop him from throwing away tax dollars on
outrageous decisions like this."

Last year, Holden withheld $250 million from the current state budget
because he claimed the budget wasn?t balanced. But as state revenues
continued to show a steady increase as Republican lawmakers had predicted,
Holden was forced to release $207 million for education. Earlier this year,
Holden released the remaining $43 million for such things as veterans?
homes, workshops for the disabled and a program providing financial aid to
pregnant women as a way of discouraging abortions.

"Bob Holden was wrong about the budget and he?s wrong for trying to feed an
already bloated state government," Sloca said. "Holden cannot learn from his
own mistakes. He is a tax-and-spend liberal and it is the people who will
suffer."