DPS spokesman Sid Gaulden confirmed Friday that notices went out to agency workers on Tuesday, telling them they'd lose their jobs on Sept. 30.

It's the second time since April that Public Safety has trimmed its payroll, now at 1,541 people, Gaulden said. The layoffs hit administration workers but don't affect Highway Patrol or other agency law enforcement officers, he said.

Half of the people losing jobs worked at Public Safety and the other half at the Division of Motor Vehicles, spun off as a standalone agency this summer. They are part of the ranks of 193 state workers who are losing jobs to layoffs that take effect by Nov. 1, said Mike Sponhour, a spokesman for the state Budget and Control Board.

The Public Safety cuts come as the agency copes with a $2 million drop in state funding for the fiscal year that began July 1.

News was much better at the state Revenue Department.

"I am proud to announce a one-time $300 bonus for each employee on the department's payroll as of June 30, 2003," Burnet Maybank, the agency's director said in a note to workers last week.

Employees began receiving the checks this week, the agency said.

The bonuses were tied to performance at the Revenue Department, Maybank said.

He cited a record level of enforced collections; the state's No. 2 status nationally for electronically filed returns; $66 million generated from a tax amnesty program; and a month cut from refund-processing times. Those gains came with the agency's payroll at the lowest level since 1969 and as Revenue operated with 1989-level funding, Maybank said.

Maybank, an appointee of Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, gave two similar bonuses when he was the agency's director between 1994 and 1998 under Republican Gov. David Beasley. Elizabeth Carpentier, appointed by Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges when he succeeded Beasley, also paid at least one bonus, Revenue spokesman Danny Brazell said.

The agency spent $161,400 on the latest bonuses, Brazell said. After taxes, workers net about $267, he said. "It was a morale builder," Maybank said. His workers "did a lot of work under very stressful circumstances" and have seen pay eroded by inflation and higher health insurance premiums, he said.

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