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JEFFERSON CITY — Nearly two dozen employees of the Missouri Secretary of State’s office were fired Friday in response to budget cuts imposed by the General Assembly.

Republican Denny Hoskins, who took over as secretary in January, jettisoned the workers after lawmakers reduced his office’s budget by 25 employees in early May.

“These layoffs are the direct result of legislative action,” communications director Rachael Dunn said in an email Monday. “We acted as soon as the budget was finalized by the legislature to provide staff with as much notice, support, and transition time as possible.”

Gov. Mike Kehoe has not yet signed the state’s overall $52.5 billion spending package. The 22 employees affected by the decision will be paid through the end of June.

The workers include 17 in the state archives and five in the library division.

The archives was created in 1965 to serve as the primary repository for state records of permanent historical value. Its holdings date from 1770 and include state publications, military records and photographic collections.

The loss of 17 people in the 60-employee division is “significant” and will lead to diminished capacity.

“Missourians should expect delays and reduced service. This legislative cut will slow essential work,” Dunn said.

Along with slower processing and archiving of state records, requests for research and public records may be slower.

“These are core government functions, and their disruption will be felt across the state,” she added.

The archives currently hold more than 336 million pages of paper; 770,000 photographs; 9,000 maps; 66,000 reels of county government records on microfilm, 560 cubic feet of published state documents and 1,000 audio/video items.

The employee cuts were imposed in the Senate, where Hoskins had served on the budget-writing committee before he was elected to statewide office in the November election.

At the time, Sen. Mike Cierpiot, R-Lee’s Summit, said he thought his former colleague would welcome a decrease in his budget after Hoskins spent his tenure in the Senate pressing for budget cuts if positions in state departments went unfilled for lengthy periods of time.

“I thought we’d have a willing partner to do this,” Cierpiot said.

But Hoskins and members of the Senate’s conservative bloc complained about the reductions.

Dunn said Hoskins continues to support efficient government and responsible staffing levels.

But, she said, “These cuts go far beyond eliminating bloat — they cut into active, productive staff and hinder the office’s ability to serve Missourians. That’s a distinction that matters deeply when you’re responsible for delivering results.”

Sen. Ben Brown, R-Washington, said clashes between members of the GOP conservative caucus and mainline Republicans might be part of political “grudges” left over from last year’s election year wrangling that roiled the Senate for much of last year.

Brown called it “retribution.”

“It comes off as… perhaps a bit of pettiness,” Brown said. “I certainly hope this is something that can be rectified.”