Furlough Fridays begin for Calif. state workers

Associated Press ^ | February 6, 2009 | Judy Lin

[Zakeet]

More than 200,000 state government employees were expected to stay home without pay Friday as California began its first-ever furlough, a move intended to save money during an ongoing fiscal crisis.

State agencies scrambled in the days before the furloughs took effect to avoid confusion for the public, such as people trying to register vehicles or obtain professional licenses.

Among the offices to be closed Friday are those of the Department of Motor Vehicles and Department of Consumer Affairs. The governor's Office of Emergency Services also would be dark as part of a cash-saving move ordered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Critical and revenue-generating agencies were scheduled to remain open, including fire stations, parks and employment centers that process unemployment insurance claims. California's unemployment rate is 9.3 percent, a 15-year high.

Schwarzenegger ordered the two-day-a-month furloughs, reducing the average state worker's salary by 9.2 percent, as he and lawmakers try to solve the state's $42 billion budget shortfall.

The governor had hoped his order would apply to some 238,000 state employees, but each of the seven other constitutional officers have said they will not comply. Employees of the Legislature are not under his authority.

Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary, Andrea Hoch, said the administration was prepared to sue the state controller if he did not reduce paychecks for more than 15,000 workers in the other constitutional offices, which include the attorney general, secretary of state and insurance commissioner.

[Zakeet]

Candy Jackson, manager of the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Placerville, Calif., displays the warning signs that the office will be closed Friday, on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009. State agencies were preparing Thursday to implement the first employee furloughs in California history, as part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to save money, in the face of a massive budget crisis. An estimated 90 percent of the state's 238,000 employees are supposed to be off Friday.

It will be interesting to hear from California Freepers how well they make out with the partially furloughed civil service clowns.

[SouthCarolinaKit]

Get along without them one day / week, then two, then maybe, even in crazy California, someone may suggest doing away with them altogether. NAH...

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

I fled Mexifornia just in the nick of time...

Saw it coming 5 years ago. When your county is the county’s largest employer, there should be alarm bells going off...

Just wait until the PERS fund liabilities are disclosed.

Warren Buffet holds a lot of those municipal bonds.

[smartymarty]

This must be the “four day work week” we were told in the 60s that computers would bring us. Ya think?? I’ve been waiting decades to see it.

[Tarpon]

Why work when the money is free. Yeah but what you gonna do when the free money runs out?

Well err, uhh, ahh, go ask Hugo Chavez ?

Cerrado ... Just stealing the jobs Americans used to have.

[Leisler]

"When your county is the county’s largest employer, there should be alarm bells going off..."

About ten years ago I was taking a leisurely drive all around the west, Colorado, Texas. I took just rural roads. I noticed a lot of slim economy towns. Nice towns, good place to raise a kid. But the nicest buildings, the only really palaces I saw were the county seat buildings.

Anyways, in the towns, the town government is the biggest "industry". In the county, the county government is the biggest "industry". In the state, the state paper-ocracy is the biggest "industry", and so too at the federal level.

Basically, the only big thriving industry in America is tax forced, government.

[Leisler]

"Warren Buffet holds a lot of those municipal bonds."

Big money likes big government. Besides, he knows those bonds will be paid off at the point of a gun barrel, sheriff's seizures and with back breaking taxes, fees, fines, permits, licenses.

For him it's kind of like loaning money to the biggest leg breaker in town. He knows the leg breaker will 'find' the money somewhere. Then again I always think of that town in Georgia I believe where the town bully got shot in broad daylight in his truck on Main Street, and no body saw a thing.

[bikerman]

Schwarzenegger ordered the two-day-a-month furloughs, reducing the average state worker’s salary by 9.2 percent,

Would do better if it were 92 percent.

[Slapshot68]

“More than 200,000 state government employees were expected to stay home without pay Friday as California began its first-ever furlough, a move intended to save money during an ongoing fiscal crisis.”

I’ll bet productivity improves 1000% on Fridays.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

And look for the unions in conjunction with the corrupt politiwhores to eventually place the state workers on a four-day week at five-day pay.

[AppyPappy]

If you think this is bad, wait until the workers see their paychecks.

[baldeagle390]

I hope the CA DMV isn't anything like Wisconsin. In WI, DMV employees only work like 30 min w/o a break (high stress job, you know). Working at their usual pace, I expect the lines to be miles long on Monday. On the other hand, I'm sure that Californians can expect extraordinary courtesy that government employees offer to the "little people" that pay their salaries.

[Hostage]

Very accurate ground observation.

It started at the Federal level in the 1960s during LBJ’s Great Society. Back then in DC there was a massive government building construction program all over the city and them into MD and VA.

Today MD’s biggest industry is government.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Basically, the only big thriving industry in America is tax forced, government.

I have seen more than one article about how all sectors of some local economy were contracting “except for government and health care”.

YOU CANNOT BUILD AN ECONOMY ON GOVERNMENT AND HEALTH CARE.

[Leisler]

I’m just taking a wild guess, but I would say a hundred miles, at least around Washington is all Federal. The last month or so, the only metro area with still high employment, and also one of the highest incomes is the Washington area.

But you see this a lot in archaeology. A large central bureaucratic capital, growing and existing on extracting wealth from the country side and employing legions of prognosticators, wizards, stargazers, minions, factotums, palace guards, servants, tax collectors, pypyrus record keepers, dancing girls, fat merchants, mewing hick rube supplicants and pleaders....

But enough about Washington...

[CobraJet]

I’ll bet this is just a paid vacation. Remember when the Federal govt. shut down a few years ago over a budget dispute. All those people got back pay and did not have to count their days off as vacation.

[aegiscg47]

Here in Utah we're looking at a similar thing, namely furloughs because no one wants to lay off people(even though there are plenty that need to go!). I have several hundred hours of vacation saved up and thought that maybe I could use some of those hours to offset the furlough, but apparently that won't be allowed if that is the option the state government chooses!

[Hostage]

You’ve got the descriptors down well.

Here is the way forward back to the Founders wisdom (with an improvement that was not technologically available in 1913):

http://www.fairtax.org

[Leisler]

I’d like to see telethons.

You know, “OK folks, tonight we have Navy Night. Admiral, tell us about how you need a new aircraft carrier....and folks let’s get those phones ringing...”

( Well, I can dream. )