Posted on 06/19/2012 5:06:53 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Despite a push to diversify its economy, the Sacramento region still depends heavily on government wages.
The state employs roughly 75,000 workers in Sacramento County, excluding those working for its two college systems and the legislature. Collectively, they earned about $4.4 billion last year, far more than state workers in any other county, according to the State Controller's Office. State workers based in Yolo, El Dorado and Placer counties earned another $200 million.
As part of his proposal to close a $16 billion deficit, Gov. Jerry Brown wants to cut state worker pay by 5 percent (and introduce a four-day workweek for most state employees).
Cutting pay by 5 percent would take about $230 million in wages from Sacramento's economy, enough to potentially support a few thousand jobs. The cuts would represent a decline of about $1 for every $200 in wages earned in the region.
After years of growth, state wages have been stagnant recently, climbing slightly last year as furloughs ended. This chart shows how much state workers in the four-county region collectively earned during the past five years.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Oh, the humanity and all the passengers screaming around here.
I suspect many/most are hourly, so it would be a 25% cut. Then again it is California, and it is Brown, so you are probably right.
What the locals lose from lack of government worker spending one day a week, the taxpayers and small businesses gain many times over. So this article is false in that it is a net gain to cut state worker pay. It is always a net gain to the state tax payers and small businesses to cut state worker payroll.
Other than that, Brown is not reducing their work hours by 20%. It is not stated in this article, but Brown wants to go to a 4-day workweek of 9.5 hour working days. So no, it would not cut their work hours by 20%, but only by 5%, while screwing up things like day care arrangements, children after school, after school soccer and other sports, and car pools. There are a lot of parents who have arrangements to pick up children after work and shuttle them around to Karate and soccer and other activities. By requiring them to have to state at work 1.5 hours later than normal is going to play havoc with their family routines.
It is stupid idea. The one-Friday-per-month furloughs worked fine, but Brown being the idiot he is, always has to reinvent the wheel and pave its path with moonbeams.
Updated at 4:55 p.m. ET:
California Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday asked state employees to work a four-day, 38-hour week as part of a package of massive spending cuts needed to help the state close an unexpected $15.7 billion budget deficit.
If California did nothing else but drop business taxes to 5% and cut their regulations against businessES by 50%, they could take in every illegal alien in the country and still be ahead of the game.
Oh no!!!!.....Oh no!!!!!!....then taxpayers would have more money to spend so that more private sector employees could be hired and then how could the Democrats steal money?
Why not just stop work 2 hours earlier on friday, same 38 hour week without disrupting the routine of the families and businesses that depend on them(child care, etc), OR cut 30 minutes from the workday from Tues through Friday.
IF you think about it, a 4 day workweek saves money for many.
The employee saves 20% of their gas expense—20% of their wardrobe expense—20% of their lunch expense, etc. It givevs them more time with their families.
I have worked a 4 day 10 hour day workweek and I came out ahead at the end of it all, with 20% less expenses.
The employer saves the cost of overhead running the offices for that 5th workday.
“Why not just stop work 2 hours earlier on friday, same 38 hour week without disrupting the routine of the families and businesses that depend on them(child care, etc), OR cut 30 minutes from the workday from Tues through Friday.”
The issue is more than just saving the labor hours, there is also the issue of a significant reduction in building overhead. Just think of all the water and toilet paper they will save forcing state workers to go to the bathroom at home one more day a week!
What a mess.
Government officials(including governors and Presidents) don't think about what will help their people, only about what helps themselves to get more votes.
Why not just stop work 2 hours earlier on friday, same 38 hour week without disrupting the routine of the families and businesses that depend on them(child care, etc), OR cut 30 minutes from the workday from Tues through Friday.
Moonbeam Brown is a very small thinker. He wastes billions but then thinks he will save money by reducing the number of cell phones an agency uses. Not that cell phones can’t be a waste of taxpayer dollars, jus that Brown if a very small-minded thinker. He is very limited.
So in his mind, closing office buildings one day a week is green and will reduce the electricity demand one day a week, and somehow this will lead to big savings.
Of course he fails to realize that if he puts people on 10 hour working days, he has to leave those buildings powered up and lighted, with AC or heaters running an extra 2 hours a day.
Net savings will be zero, but his tiny mind can’t grasp that fact.
He really is a mental midgit. I begged friends and co-workers not to vote for him but many still did. They are flat insane to have done so, but this is California where most people are just flat insane.
They still have utopian dreams, think money grows on trees, and we can sing Kumbaya in peace. This is the state where people think if we don’t have nuclear weapons, then nobody will have cause to fear or attack us then.
I live in an insane state and Moonbeam is just the symptom. But oy what a symptom!
He can’t govern. He never has. He just wings it and of course, this cause the big problems to get bigger. He is a dreamy minded jackass that couldn’t govern this state with a gun to Linda Ronstadt’s head.
I dunno; bringing a building to comfortable temperature only four times a week rather than five might be a little easier on the energy bill. It would be related to the costs of bringing the temperature to the desired point, which is more intensive than keeping it there, and might not be a whole lot. But maybe something like 5%.
“Unexpected”....snort...
Fixing California’s economy is technically easy.
Encourage oil drilling throughout the state and coast.
Elmilinate CARB “California Air Resources Board” and rescind the new cap and trade law.
Reduce environmental regulation on businesses.
We do so many idiotic things in this state like sue businesses into oblivion for not having ramps per Americans with Disabilities Act. We halt projects over the Migratory Bird Treaty. We halt projects over Stormwater issues.
Environmental nazi enforcement is a huge reason that this state is going to hell.
Then ther is the fact that 1 in 3 US welfare cases live in Calfornia. We could take the least poor half of them and end their money tomorrow.
Here is an easy way to end California illegal immigration. Automatic $1000/incident fine for every illegal working in a business. Poof. No more illegals.
California voters are the most idiotic insance voters in the USA. They love all of the utopian socialist policies that we get by voting for liberal socialists all up and down the states. As a populace, the like the state the way it is.
That is why California is doomed to ultimate insolvency, which is good because it is the only way California rebounds. Like an alcoholic in denial, we need to hit bottom before the nice priest can steer us into treatment at AAA.
It is just a matter of time before California hits bottom. I say the sooner the better, but the Detroit example seems to indicate that hitting bottom takes a really, really long time.
99.99% of Legacy Media reporters fail to understand that every single penny the Government spends, at the end of the day, comes from a private citizens bank account.
Every dollar spent by (unproductive) Govt is one less dollar spent in the (productive) private sector.
Yes, there would be some small efficiency savings by not having to ramp up the heating or cooling of a building one day a week. Is it significant? I don’t know?
Does it offset the inefficiency of office workers pushing through hours 9 and 10? I don’t know. I can tell you that I am not very sharp after putting in an 8 hour day at the computur. If I am sharp in hours 9 and 10, then I didn’t push very hard for hours 1 to 8. I think my boss gets better work from me after 8 hours of sleep than trying to coax me along for ours 9 and 10 each day.
But that is just me.
My point was simple.
Jerry Brown is a very small thinker. If he needs layoffs, then do it. Quit nibbling around the edges with closing buildings one day a week and taking away cell phones from people. If I need a cell phone, don’t take mine away. If you have no money to pay for the state’s expenses, then quit hiring people and start layoffs.
Brown is a mental midgit. He nibbles around the edges and saves pennies and still wastes pounds. That is just how he is.
He can’t govern.
Yes, every government dollar destroys a private sector dollar and sadly, I would say 3/4 of those government dollars are misallocated. So it takes destroying $4 private sector dollars to get $1 of value back.
Insane.
We could easily return most of what government provides to the private sector. I know in my heart that private schools would do a far better job educating kids at far less cost. That would be a great place to start. Privatize K-12 education entirely.
Yes, some extra expense for kids at rich schools and middle class schools would have to go to pay for kids in poor areas, but between charities, volunteers etc, it is workable.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.