Associated Press - November 19, 2009 2:34 PM ET

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - To skirt layoffs in Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's budget office, his finance chief has become Idaho human resources director, too.

Wayne Hammon took over as interim Division of Human Resources head Oct. 30 when its former head, Judy Wright, retired eight months earlier than she'd planned.

With the move, Human Resources agreed to pump about $45,000 - roughly half of Wright's salary - into her state pension fund, to boost her retirement payments to the level they would have been had she stayed until June 30, 2010.

The rest of Wright's salary now covers about half of Hammon's roughly $90,000 annual wage.

Hammon says these shifts, along with about $40,000 in additional cuts at the budget office, has saved one job in his agency that otherwise would have been eliminated following Otter's late-September budget cuts.

Otter approved the move through June, but Hammon says it's still undecided if it will be permanent.

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