For the sixth time in eight years, Gov. Jay Nixon said state employees will get the day after Thanksgiving as an extra holiday.
Nixon on Friday issued an executive order closing state offices Nov. 25 - the day often called Black Friday because of the many pre-Christmas sales on the traditional start to the Christmas holiday shopping season.
State law closes the government 12 days each year - New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Lincoln's birthday (Feb. 12), Washington's birthday/Presidents Day, Truman's birthday (May 8), Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veteran's Day (Nov. 11), Thanksgiving and Christmas.
But - with exceptions in 2010 and 2011 - governors of both parties for at least five decades added the day after Thanksgiving, by executive order.
In those two years, Nixon said closing the state's doors that day cost the state too much money - an estimated $1.6 million in state funds, for comp time and overtime pay to those employees, like Highway Patrol troopers, Corrections officers and workers in state-run veterans homes and mental health facilities like Fulton State Hospital, who must work when others are off.
In his Friday morning news release, the governor announced the day off and added "public safety and other essential services and facilities will continue their normal operations."
Several years ago, Nixon asked lawmakers to cancel the Lincoln and Truman birthday holidays, since they are not part of the federal government's holiday schedule - but the Legislature didn't support the proposal.
Businesses years ago tagged the day as Black Friday, as a recognition that it marked the day many of America's retailers do enough business to be "in the black" financially and able to make a profit for the year.