At some point, you'd figure, Arnold would take out his vengeance against some other group. Like, say oil companies or something. But no, Arnold is out for state worker blood.
The governor's latest budget proposal assumes almost 20 percent in employee wage cuts: 15 percent from the three-day furloughs that started this month, plus another 5 percent across-the-board whack.
"Three days (furlough) plus the 5 percent," said H.D. Palmer, Department of Finance spokesman when asked Wednesday to clarify the governor's budget proposal.
The Legislature won't go for the pay cut, but the governor can then add a furlough day for reasons we'll explain. (SacBee State Worker 7/9/09)
This will be a 20% pay cut. And let's be clear, while many of these employees make a decent living, it's not like any of these people were making CEO type salaries. These are people who put in their time, and do extremely hard work for the people of the state every day.
Slashing their salaries doesn't create any massive cost savings, it is essentially a tool that Arnold can use for negotiations. It's cynical and short sighted. If Arnold does get his way, services will be slashed down to the bone. It's impractical and doesn't actually solve any real problems. More of the same shock doctrine attitudes and goals from the Governor.
UPDATE by Julia let me also note that these state workers have already seen their workloads dramatically increase. Between all of the cut backs and unfilled positions, plus simply having 3 less days to do the same work these workers are overburdened and now facing huge cuts in their pay. |
