I remember going into an office where we had a 14% sick-leave rate. When I went to seek more money from my seniors, they said, “Well, maybe you should do something about your sick rate.” All we did was mention to the employees that when they don't come to work, their colleagues have to pick up the slack. Surprisingly, our sick rate went down to 6%.
Through economy, could you not come up with 3.9% on the size of that budget? That doesn't seem like a terrible amount of.... Have you looked at that?