Oh, and your health insurance and 401K contributions will be terminated due to budget cuts, too.
That's what Itzl's facing. We're getting deep budget cuts again this year - for the 4th year in a row. They've managed to keep Itzl's 401K contributions, his health insurance, and his annual stipend in the face of these budget cuts, even though he did have to lose his dental plan (just before the car accident where he lost 2 teeth!) but this new round of cuts is really deep on top of all the prior ones. His little benefits aren't much, but they've helped keep him healthy and well fed and well equipped when my own paycheck has been brutalized for budget cuts.
Itzl is relatively cheap as far as animal companions go - vaccinations, new leashes, food, the occasional grooming session. If his health insurance is canceled, I can cover the premiums myself. They're only $40 a month.
But he won't get as many treats and no more grooming sessions.
He doesn't know about budgets. He knows his job, and he'll do it even without all the fancy stipends and health insurance and 401k plans and all. He expects me to take care of his needs and as long as his bowl is filled every day and I let him work, he's happy.
My job, however deeply the pay gets cut, is safe as long as the agency exists because I'm a classified employee, but our state just closed 2 agencies due to budget cuts, and I know our agency is on the chopping block because it hits all the things Republican politicians seem to hate most: it benefits children regardless of their income, it involves education, and it doesn't directly benefit banks, the wealthy, or the politicians. It does indirectly benefit them...but they can't see that.
If the agency closes and I lose my job because of that, I know I am not hirable in the current market, being old and doubly disabled (hearing impairment and due to a work accident nearly 2 years ago I lost 80% of the use of my right hand).
I can do my job because I figured out work-arounds and ways to get things done, but would new employers give me the chance to learn a new job and create the work-arounds I need in order to be abe to do it? And how will they react to Itzl? I know I have the right to have him with me, and here, it's not an issue because there are plenty of pet dogs here so he blends in. But elsewhere, if he were the only dog, would he be as welcomed?