California has been in trouble for some time now between strikes, budget issues, and the down housing market. With our Governator unable to sign a new budget (which had a deadline of July 1st- oops) he has decided he may need to slash workers salaries down to minimum wage until legislators give him a budget he can sign. Until he does so we will not be able to borrow the BILLIONS of dollars needed to keep our state solvent. Not surprisingly, people are not very happy with Schwarzenegger’s new plan. Many families, single parents, and others are not able to survive on $6.55 an hour.
Schwarzenegger was expected to sign the order early next week, affecting 200,000 state workers. The deadline for passing a 2008-09 budget was July 1, and without one soon, California may be unable to borrow billions of dollars needed to keep the state solvent, officials have warned.
The plan would allow the state to defer paying about $1 billion a month, administration officials said. Workers would be repaid their lost earnings once a budget was in place. But many workers questioned how they would pay their immediate costs: mortgages, food, gas, child support.
Many of the 200,000 workers are worried about how they will make ends meat with the budget cuts.
“I won’t be able to survive,” said Carolina Castillo, a legal secretary. “I have three kids, I’m a single mom. . . . There’s just no way.”
Castillo, 34, said that if her wages were cut, she might need welfare and would have no choice but to return to the private sector, which she left a year and a half ago for a steadier schedule and more time with her family.
“The governor is turning a budget crisis into a catastrophe,” said Yvonne Walker, president of Service Employees International Union Local 1000, which represents 95,000 state workers. “How can you tell people, ‘We will just pay you this amount and you can catch up later?’
Others seem to understand what Schwarzenegger is doing.
“It’s possible but improbable,” said Don Williams, a staffer in the Department of Social Services who ruefully called himself “a veteran of many wars” during his state service.
Balekjian, who defends the state against employees’ lawsuits — and emphasized he was speaking only for himself, not his office — said such a move would not save the state in the long run. Balekjian said he is ethically obligated to continue his legal work whether he is paid or not. But if he were to quit because of a drastic salary cut, he added, the state would have to scramble for new lawyers, possibly delaying court cases that would leave the state vulnerable to costly damage payments to plaintiffs. “It’s like cutting off your nose to spite your face,” he said.
So what do you think should be done?
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1 Arnie // Jul 28, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Temporarily cut state workers pay to minimum wage to help the state budget? How about, instead, California permanently cuts some of its staff, starting with every parking cop, all of the CHP, and every public school administrator (let the teachers run the schools). I’m sure I can think of a few more if you give me a minute.
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