Schwarzenegger: No more bills until the budget is done { Veto everything!}

http://www.sacbee.com/749/story/1132910.html

The massive pay cut would exhaust the state’s antiquated payroll system, which is built on a Vietnam-era computer language so outdated that many college students don’t even bother to learn it anymore.

Democratic state Controller John Chiang said Monday it would take at least six months to reconfigure the state’s payroll system to issue blanket checks at the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour, though Schwarzenegger insists such a change should occur this month.

Experts say Chiang isn’t joking when he describes the state’s payroll system as a computing relic on par with vacuum tubes and floppy disks.

“It’s an example of a number of computer systems in which the state made a large investment decades ago and has been keeping it going the last few years with duct tape,” said Michael Cohen, director of state administration with the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

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Chiang said.. the state cannot logistically retool its payroll system in a matter of weeks as the governor has asked. And if the change eventually were made, Chiang said it would take an additional nine to 10 months to issue back pay to employees when the budget is approved.

“Pragmatically, we just can’t get the system to work in a timely manner for us to implement payment of minimum wage,” Chiang said.

Aren't legislators included in this now?

Perhaps it would be easier to initiate massive layoffs and shut down all but the most critical services. State workers (especially teachers)are always griping about how much more money the private sector pays, and the Legislature needs to raise taxes to pay the illegals, so this would be a perfect opportunity to experience life as a California Taxpayer instead of a California TaxTaker.

There would be some big issues if everybody took a pay cut. What happens if child support garnishment is greater than the new pay amount? Who goes to jail for non-payment?

That said, Arnold may have one last trick: refuse to authorize borrowing money. If the state is paying out more money than it takes in, the bank accounts will eventually be empty, and no further checks can be written without the Controller going to jail for issuing bouncing checks

I don’t believe teachers are state workers. State workers are those working for the Highway Patrol, government agencies, DMV and others. Police, firemen, teachers are employed by their districts or municipalities or counties. The point is, it puts the governor into an adversarial position with state employees (i.e., their union) who don’t, at least individually, have much voice with legislators. Better to hit the assembly members and their staffs directly rather than all state employees. It doesn’t make much sense to hit Tom in order to impress Dave that you mean business.

Chiang has flat out stated that he has no intention of complying, period. That undercuts any credibility he has in estimating how long it would take to re program the system.

The democrats in the legislature and state unions are having a power play with the executive branch to force more spending and more taxes resulting in a higher burden on the private sector, and I say if the state union members can't get their leadership in line, then eff 'em, fire the greedy bastards who put these girlymen in office and start over.

The democrats in the legislature and state unions are having a power play with the executive branch to force more spending and more taxes

Arnold has never needed any help in pushing for more spending, more fees, more borrowing. He's been right there with the Dems while strong-arming a few weak-kneed Republicans to go-along, or else. The only thing that is stopping him from raising taxes right now are a bunch of Republican legislators that finally found their spine to stand up to the trojan horse. Arnold will be using this stunt to attack Republicans--just wait and see.

If I recall correctly, garnishments are a percentage of net wages & may not exceed a certain portion of those wages, so no problem there. Most employees will want to suspend elective deductions (IRA, etc.), but that can be done in the usual way. These sorts of things are already handled by the existing payroll system with no changes required.

I doubt ANY programming changes will be needed to the existing system. As I read it, the Gov. is simply reducing employees' pay rate, & pay changes are obviously common to ALL payroll systems. The only programming I see from this news is a utility program to do the job quickly & save the P/R dept. from having to do it manually.

It's a good assignment for a programmer. The P/R dept. is real happy to avoid manually changing ALL those employee records, & Mgmt. is happy the P/R manager is not bitchin' at them. Plus, no errors from sloppy clerks. Just do it in time, & get it right; & you get some recognition & maybe even some homemade brownies!

Payroll systems, BTW, are some of the easiest systems to maintain, for 2 reasons: 1) The Feds & states send every employer a booklet every year that clearly defines how the payroll is calculated; and 2) Management has little interest in payroll processing as long as it is right & on time, yet it carries an unspoken priority that EVERYONE recognizes & respects.

I hope the Governor sticks to his guns on this one. Demoting everyone to minimum wage hourly will make an awful lot of bureaucrats (mostly liberals) mad at the pols (mostly liberals) who engineered this situation by rampant & wasteful spending. The naysayers are blowing smoke here to avoid angering a big constituency.

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