Posted on 01/10/2009 1:15:33 PM PST by BenLurkin
Some were furious. Others were sad, even tearful. Many more accepted the news with graceful resignation, trying to hide their worries.
At the end of a week that brought nothing but more grim economic news, that's how dozens of state workers greeted the state personnel department's announcement that thousands of California public servants will be furloughed two Fridays a month and lose 10 percent in pay, starting Feb. 6.
None found the prospect of two three-day weekends a month appealing in the current economy.
"Sweet Jesus, help me God," sighed Jolene Deaton, a vital records staffer at the Department of Public Health who lives in West Sacramento.
Deaton fought back tears outside her downtown office building as she clutched a state memo announcing the furloughs in one hand and a sacbee.com news report about the plan in the other.
"I'm a single parent. I'm barely making it as it is," Deaton said. "It's just devastating to me. It's awful."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's furloughs aim to save the state more than $1 billion in an effort to cut a $40 billion budget deficit and avoid running out of cash. State employee unions argue that the Republican governor's plan is unconstitutional, and their lawyers have taken the governor and the state to court.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette agreed Friday to hear arguments in the case on Jan. 29.
Susan Mattson, 51, said she and her husband, Mike, who work for different offices of the Department of Employment Development's disability insurance branch, will suffer if furloughs proceed.
"We get hit twice," she complained during a walk around the state Capitol. "We didn't think it would happen."
Mattson was commiserating with two office colleagues, including Margo Hattin, 36, who was horrified by the news. Hattin just bought a home on her own.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Aren't we the heartless SOBs here on FR, suggesting that state cuts should be deep enough to force her to give up her lawn service? Oh, the humanity!!
I couldn’t agree with you more that this will be worse that the 30s. There is a much higher percentage of people dependent upon the gov and more that think they are owed something. The public sector employees are strangling this country. The Dems will give them everything they want. We are in for hyper inflation to keep things going for those on the dole. The M1 is going way up, the M1 multiplier is going way down, and we are screwed.
I am 60. I have never “needed” a government employee for anything in my life. And I never will. All they have ever done is obstruct and hassle anything I ever want to do. Useless.
you’ve never called the fire dept or the police dept? or cared about all the criminals in prison?
I do not consider the fire or police “government employees”. They are public servants an entirely different animal. Although the police need to get their priorities straight.
Kalifornicate can drown in their own excrement for all I care. Effing commie pukes. Maybe the eastern half of that state should wake up and disassociate themselves from the coastal idiots.
I would call it the retire-like-royalty policy of the government unions aided and abetted by their rat allies, complacent conservatives, and gullible public.
They are.
It ain’t that they’re useless. It’s that it takes three of them to do the work of one decent worker AND THEY DON’T GIVE ONE GOOD GD ABOUT THOSE THEY ARE SUPPOISEDLY SERVING.
Stinking unionized paycheck collectors.
“It’s that it takes three of them to do the work of one decent worker....”
Me and my co worker are doing the work that five of us used to do and I haven’t had a raise in three years. I also contribute nine percent of my pay by law to a retirement account.
It sucks when you are ignorant.
Yep. The other shoe waiting to drop, as far as the economy goes.
Three guesses?
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers party?
American Independent?
Libertarian?
You got me. I'm stumped...
Oh yes. All I have to do is listen to my local state representatives in private conversation. They are living in denial.
The poor little dearies... Kicked off the teat.
yeah lets just have total havoc and let all the criminals loose and forget about putting out fires or providing emergency medical service
And lets just forget about medicare or social security benefits. I mean really do we need them?
Sounds OK to me. My nipples are sore.
Liberals have already converted to Islam by default in their gay marriage jihad? Does that count?
yeah right you are such a liar
you know the law is the law whether you like it or not if you don’t change it including mandatory labor union dues in ca by state gov’t workers its all up to you
She'll have two days a month she can cut her own damn grass! If she cuts back on the watering, that might be enough to get by without having to do so any more often.
I just took a job that is part-time (20 hrs per week) because my former company was closing our local operation. If I can figure out how to manage with a 50% cut in pay, these slackers can figure out how to get along with a ten percent cut from a fat government salary. Boo freakin' hoo.
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