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Instead of instigating state paycut drama, legislators and the governor need to get to the serious business of hammering out a budget.
Never mind that cities, counties and school districts in California are waiting for a state budget so they’ll know what they have to work with this year.
Never mind that the state Legislature had a constitutional deadline to pass a budget by June 15 and the governor was required to sign it by July 1 — and that today is the 30th of July.
Our Democrats and Republicans in the state Legislature are still divided over how to close a $15.2 billion shortfall and pass an annual budget. It’s like a bad summer movie that gets released year after year, only this time the previews are getting melodramatic.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pledged to slash the pay for 200,000 state workers to federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour and to lay off 22,000 temporary workers — beginning Thursday — until the state has a budget. In response to that, state employees plan a "sick out," the state controller plans to defy the governor’s order and issue full checks, and the labor unions and others surely plan to file lawsuits.
Arnold’s pay-cut stunt might spur action. It certainly will grab the attention of everyone in the state. But it doesn’t solve anything, because once the state has a budget, state workers would be reimbursed for the lost wages. More likely, it would cause legal battles that would only worsen the state’s finances.
So here’s a novel idea. Let’s avoid all that drama.
Of course, it’s going to come down to tough choices and compromise, not unlike those that households and private businesses have already had to face this year.
There’s going to have to be some pain before gain. But we elect state officials to find solutions to challenging problems, like how to pass a fiscally sound budget that requires a two-thirds super-majority — and maybe even how to pass a motivating new law that cuts legislators’ pay when the budget is late.
Right now, the Democrats’ position is to increase taxes by $8 billion, and the approach of the Republicans is to make unspecified multibillion-dollar cuts. Somehow that gap’s going to have to be closed, and the only ones who can close it are the legislators and the governor.
Get to work, leaders.
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Good article and good food for thought.
How about this.
In order to make up the shortfall, instead of laying anyone off and reducing the pay for just the hourly people, the people who will be financially impacted by all of this, just have every state employee's salary, pay, benefits and stipends reduced by the same percentage of their salary as everyone else who is employed by the state.
This way way public employee takes the hit equally across the board and not just the individules at the lower income scale that don't have a cushion to fall back on.
The problem with the Governators plan is it only impacts the hourly wage earner that works for the state and does nothing to the salaried administrators who have a much larger, and thus a larger economic cushon to fall on.
Hey Arnie, what do you think of this plan? I doubt you are even paying attention.
I wonder, if every hourly state and public employee suddenly didn't do their jobs how well could all the administrators do their jobs?
Not very well I am thinking.
We could also trim some of the fat out of social services who are giving thousands of benefits to people who really don't deserve them.
Dave Hardesty