Senate and House Republicans demanded today that Gov. Bill Ritter place an immediate hold on all hiring by the state government in the face of looming budget cuts and a faltering economy.

The action by the legislative GOP follows the release earlier this week of a troubling economic forecast by the nonpartisan office of Legislative Council. The agency's latest quarterly forecast, released Monday, shows the state's 2008-09 budget, adopted last spring by the Democrat-controlled legislature, will come up some $300 million short due to slumping revenue amid the economic downturn.

The GOP members say the first order of business in stemming the state's red ink must be to stop the Ritter administration's hiring binge, which added some 2,500 positions to the state's payroll in the two years Ritter has been in office. More than 1,300 of those were added just in the current budget year alone. 

"Republicans voted against the budget because it was flat-out irresponsible to hire new government employees during tenuous economic times," said the GOP's Sen. Josh Penry, of Grand Junction.

"With our credit markets in ruin and the state's budget soaked in red ink, the governor needs to put the breaks on mass government hirings," he said. "Every dollar the governor spends growing government payroll is a dollar that will be cut from higher education, transportation or healthcare programs."

Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, said Ritter should borrow a page from his predecessor in office.

"We're now asking for the second time: Governor, will you apply the brakes on government spending as it is more evident now than before that you're leading us into a crisis situation?" Kopp said.

Republican Rep. Frank McNulty, of Highlands Ranch, said it is difficult for families facing layoffs or other financial hardships to see government spending continue unabated.

"State government cannot stand by and expect Colorado's working families to pick up the tab for another government budget bailout," McNulty said. "It is past time for Democrat leaders to stop their free-spending ways and join us to protect taxpayers and stop the budget freefall by implementing an immediate state hiring freeze."

Added Penry, "It's time to tighten our belt and show some discipline."