By Sally Connell -- San Luis Obispo County’s biggest single industry — government — is expected to be hit for the third year in a row, as the No. 1 local story of 2009 promises to be on the list again come next December. It is estimated that government on all levels — State Parks, highway workers, schools, colleges, and even cities and the county — is responsible for between 25 and 35 percent of the jobs in the county. Its percentage of good-paying middle- and upper-middle-income jobs is even higher.California’s budget crisis has already caused many state workers to see their pay cut 15 percent from forced furloughs. The crisis has led teachers and parents to protest school employee layoffs and led disabled students to plead for their program at Cuesta College board meetings.

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