The State Worker: Public even notice 20% cut in work time?

SacBee: State Worker ^ | 11/5/9 | Jon Ortiz

[SmithL]

Welcome to California government, 80 percent-style.

This is the first of 12 weeks in a row that the state will shut down every Friday. Between unpaid furlough days and paid holidays off, most California civil servants won't work a five-day week again until Jan. 29.

But how much will the public notice – or care?

We've had nine months to adjust to a part-time state government. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger started furloughing workers two days per month in February and upped it to three "Furlough Fridays" in July.

Meanwhile, the public's most acute fiscal pain is closer to home. "Cities, counties, schools – that's where Californians are noticing cutbacks," said Mark Baldassare of the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, which frequently polls public attitudes toward government.

And, Baldassare said, the lengthy economic recession in California has lowered expectations.

"So many people are personally experiencing work reductions and layoffs that, unfortunately, cutbacks are something people are accustomed to. They're numb to it," he said.

Much of what state government does goes unseen. Aside from things like licensing through the Department of Motor Vehicles, state Transportation Department "cone zone" slowdowns or filing taxes, most of us don't see the vast bureaucracy.

[investigateworld]

California is just a preview of nearly every state will be like once the Bush-Kennedy-McCain Amnesty goes through.

I saw with mine own eyeballs, the leap in the Welfare Rolls after the 1986 Amnesty crowd became eligible.

:^(

[mgstarr]

Considering that the job of most government workers seems to be to generate mountains of redundant paperwork, having them off might actually improve efficiency elsewhere.

[hoosier hick]

Government workers aside, I think most taxpayers would gladly cut government office hours by 20% in exchange for a 20% reduction in costs....

hh

[Stayfree]

So instead of having 10 guys standing around watching one guy digging a hole in the ground, we now only have eight?

What a helluva improvement!!!

[Grampa Dave]

There was a little problem at the DMV getting appointments.

A lot less time than a couple of years ago when the illegals took up the appointments and stand ins. With the economic melt down, there are less illegals going for drivers’s licenses.