Dog Community

So ... The Governator did it (Joyce)

Posted : 8/1/2008 5:07:12 PM

He actually signed the bill plunging 200,000 state workers down to federal minimum wage ($6.55 an hour - he didn't even have the decency to use CA minimum wage which is $2.00 more) and gave the pink slip to 10,000 part time workers (which include the people who stay on top of contractors licences and inspect the food that winds up on the grocery produce sections) ... all because the dang legislators - who ARE PAID BIG $$$$$ to do it - can't balance the budget. I suppose this is what you get when you elect a womanizing body builder/crappy action movie star to govern the fifth largest economy in the world. His only political experience was marrying a Kennedy. The state controller went on TV and said this was NOT his only option. He could have borrowed the necessary money from Wall St. The workers will get their money back when the budget is balanced, but that's not going to help them pay their bills when they're due. *sigh* Should be an interesting month. I hope all 200,000 of them stay home and then he'll see how the state runs.

Joyce

sillysally

Posted : 8/1/2008 6:31:42 PM

IDK, Illinois has been having a heck of a time with their budget (and the entire state is run by Dems--it's just that none of them can seem to play nicely) and in Chicago (another Democratic run city) at least workers are going to have to take days off unpaid--and this is in a city that just raised it's sales tax to 10%.....

Cita

Posted : 8/2/2008 8:47:41 AM

They didn't even use state minimum wage?! That's LOW. I thought the reasons states created their own minimum wages was to account for things like cost of living, which of course is astronomical in CA!

Dog_ma

Posted : 8/2/2008 11:08:28 AM

This was such a stupid move. I think he's trying to put pressure on the legislators, but the budget in CA is always delayed.

Pay cuts to state employees is NOT what our economy needs. Just unbelievable.

Aina

Posted : 8/2/2008 11:43:04 AM

They didn't even use state minimum wage?! That's LOW. I thought the reasons states created their own minimum wages was to account for things like cost of living, which of course is astronomical in CA!

Personally I think minimum wage is a bad for economics. However, to force businesses to pay minimum wage and then pay your employees less because you are the government is really bad and hypocritical.

cakana

Posted : 8/2/2008 12:35:21 PM

Apparently there was a Supreme Court ruling a few years ago that said the state could cut pay if a budget hadn't passed and they could cut it to Federal unemployment rates. Not sure why that was part of the ruling though.

The late budget seems to be the norm anymore. I was a Gov's appointee before Davis was recalled and every summer we'd start planning for no paychecks. It's ridiculous that the people who have nothing to do with passing a budget are the ones to suffer. The legislators just take off for a few weeks and never seem to feel any of the repurcussions. I'm not sure what the answer is, but penalizing people trying to get by and pay their bills each month doesn't seem fair at all. I've heard that it might be October before they can all agree on a budget Super Angry

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 8/2/2008 1:57:23 PM

Apparently the lines at the DMV in San Francisco were so bad yesterday (the temporary workers weren't there) that they had to close up early except for people who had appointments. What Arnie should have done is just announce that if the budget wasn't passed on time (July 1st.) the legislature would be on minimum wage. I can pretty much guarantee they would have had the budget on time. We go through this crap every year, but this is the first time he has taken such drastic steps. Some banks have offered to make short term, no interest loans to their customers who have direct deposit, but that still leaves out a lot of workers and the 10,000+ part timers are pretty much s*it out of luck.

Joyce