Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday he will refuse to sign any bills that reach his desk until the Legislature sends him a budget agreement.
Listen to the entire statement here.
Posted on 08/06/2008 11:11:52 PM PDT by SmithL
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday he will refuse to sign any bills that reach his desk until the Legislature sends him a budget agreement.
"At this point, nothing in this building is more important than a responsible budget to fix our broken budget system," he said at a hastily called afternoon press conference. "So until the Legislature passes a budget that I can sign, I will not sign any bills that reach my desk."
Schwarzenegger acknowledged that his decision "means some good bills will fail." But he said with a cash crisis looming, the late budget takes on even greater urgency.
The Republican governor last week signed an executive order with an apology to state workers to reduce their pay to minimum wage until a budget is signed, blaming the action on the Legislature's failure to reach agreement on a state budget. But the state controller has said the state's antiquated budget system makes that threat largely empty, because the payroll changes could not be made for months.
Schwarzenegger and lawmakers are in their 37th day of a budget stalemale, disagreeing over how to close a $15.2 billion shortfall in the state's general fund.
Lawmakers returned to the Capitol this week with slightly more than 1,000 bills to act upon before the two-year session ends Aug. 31, according to the Assembly speaker's office.
The governor's threat may have little impact. The Senate and Assembly can pass bills and hold them at their desks until they pass a budget. Most bills do not become law until Jan. 1, so a summer delay would have no practical effect.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Listen to the entire statement here.
Funny, meaningless stuff from the Taxinator.
Well, something should be done to force the hand of the legislature to do their consitutional duty and pass a budget.
Since virtually all legislation has a price tag attached, any bills they pass and send to Arnold probably wouldn’t take effect anyway without the budgeted money to spend.
Perhaps cutting the legislators wages to minimum would get the desired result? Heck cut it off entirely.
Good news - the government is out of commission for a while.
But it won’t last - he’s caved on everything else.
Make my day / read my lips / girly-man kinda thing.
Yes. As a matter of fact, he has.
Anti-Business States Awash In Red Ink
Real Clear Markets | August 06, 2008 | Steven Malanga
Posted on 08/06/2008 7:04:34 AM PDT by Malone LaVeigh
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2057377/posts
Recall Pelosi Now
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/recall-nancy-pelosi | 8/06/2008 | MJ
Posted on 08/06/2008 8:46:46 PM PDT by bayladie
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2057839/posts
As usual.
Arnold blowing more hot air.
I remember the venom that spewed within minutes of Arnold's winning the election, with the rat side stating catagorically that they would not work with him.
Time to start reffering to these perfumed princes as the girlymen they are, Gov, or you will only be remembered as a spot on the road as California's economy collapses AGAIN.
Bluster.
He refused because he is not able to do it. It's an archaic payroll system, written in COBOL, covering over 200,000 employees. Chiang made the right call on this. You can't track the labor of 200,000+ employees, accrue and pay wages, taxes, and other benefits, on varying wage amounts, on the back of an envelope. There is a reason payroll systems cost millions to upgrade or replace--they are very complex.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I say lock the legislators in a big room and keep them there until they pass the budget.
5 days without a budget, tear off the roof and make them work and sleep in the open.
10 days, throw Maria Shriver in the room
15 days, throw Arnold in.
17 days, throw Rosie O’Donnell in the room.
20 days, stop feeding them. (Nothing more dangerous than a starving Rosie.)
25 days, stop paying them.
I developed & supported payroll systems for 20+ years, in several languages including COBOL. Most included union workers, as well as salaried & hourly employees.
Changing all workers (or select groups) to hourly, non-exempt, minimum wage would be a piece of cake! The number of employees is irrelevant.
I did it every year for multiple payrolls when the union contracts changed. Often, it had to be done in days, as a late or incorrect union payroll cost the company big bucks in penalties. Kalifornia MUST have to do the same thing every year as well. Plus, tax rules change every year, so they must be implemented as well. I suspect they have a large, experienced support staff for this very thing.
The more difficult change will be to RESTORE employees to their former payroll status AFTER these political problems are solved. But, with a copy of employee records prior to the minimum wage change, the programming is more difficult, but doable. That code, BTW, can be written & tested during the minimum wage period, & ready to run when needed.
I realize that there will be problems with employees wanting to change their elective deductions because of the drastic drop in pay. The existing system & support can handle these problems & most others.
The hotshots out there in CA cyberworld might not speak COBOL, but I suspect there are quite a few old guys in CA that can do this project in their sleep!
Why penalize state workers who have no control over the budget? I realize the symbolism of it but if the governor had wanted to make a real impact on recalcitrant legislators, he should start by taking away all the state cars and gas credit cards of the legislators, then the per diems. Let me feel what it is like to be common working stiffs who have to pay their own car payments, insurance premiums and pump charges. That alone would save millions.
But that's not all they need to do.
They would need to track both old and new salary amounts, ultimately relying of some hybrid of each to support other financial reporting. And the "minimum wage" edict doesn't apply to all employees. For certain employees, they would be paid nothing... for others, full pay... and yet others, minimum wage--at either $6.55 or $11.38, depending on their position. Original pay would still need to be recorded and be the basis for calculating tax withholding amounts since the liability has been realized. But then a check would need to be based (partially) on an alternative amount. It's not just a matter of changing their pay scale, their withholding, or a job code. It's a matter of tracking both the old amount (on which they will be paid once the budget is settled and would be the basis for tracking liabilities) and the new rate (which can be the basis for cutting checks for cash purposes, only).
You may think this can be done in one's sleep. I would disagree.
It is a risky move to defy an executive order, but State Controller Chiang said he believes strongly in what he is doing. Despite the governor's threat, most state employees have seen no change in their pay, and they have Chiang to thank for that.
State Controller, John Chiang. He says, "I'm the one who won't issue the minimum wage as the governor ordered, so the next step they would have to take is the governor would have to sue me to pay minimum wage," State Controller Chiang said. ~snip~
http://www.ksby.com/Global/story.asp?S=8794216
He said he wouldn’t do it... because he isn’t able to do it.
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=9482
He says his staff tried in 2003 to see what it would take to rewrite the computer code to lower pay. “And after 12 months, we stopped without a feasible solution and with the knowledge that recovery for such a sweeping adjustment to minimum wage would take at least six months before all employees would see the right amounts in their hard-earned paychecks,” he says
Mr. Chiang also says if the lower pay were to go into effect, California government might be violating California law.
“The governor’s order to pay California state workers only the federal minimum wage would put the state in the awkward position of violating its own labor law,” he says. “Since Jan. 1, California law has required all California employers to pay their workers at least the $8 minimum wage set by the Legislature.”
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