California can't afford state employees
Feb 7, 2009 17:26:18 GMT
Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2009 17:26:18 GMT
In the starkest example of the intensifying budget crisis befalling most states, more than 200,000 California state workers were ordered to stay home Friday, the first of the semimonthly work furloughs across state agencies intended to trim $1.3 billion from California’s $143 billion budget.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the unpaid days — which were upheld last month by a county judge — to be taken until June 2011. For most workers, for whom the furlough means a 9 percent cut in pay, the days off will be the first and third Fridays of each month.
How is such a thing possible? In Europe, people often take dull civil service jobs to at least have job security in exchange for salaries that are lower than in the private sector. It seems outrageous to me to 'punish' the entire population of the state by closing offices that people need. Such services are not profit-making operations and should have already been budgeted with taxpayers' money.
Californians looking to renew driver’s licenses, take tests for state jobs, file claims or seek many other services found themselves out of luck Friday. By early morning, about a dozen people stood on the sidewalk outside a Los Angeles high-rise where the Department of Industrial Relations is located. Five had planned to take an exam in an effort to register as garment workers.
“Why this office?” said Lisa Bacaro, 32, who had taken the morning off to take the exam. “In hard times, why can’t they close a different office? This is where people come for help with jobs. I am trying to take this test to start work, better work. I can’t believe this.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the unpaid days — which were upheld last month by a county judge — to be taken until June 2011. For most workers, for whom the furlough means a 9 percent cut in pay, the days off will be the first and third Fridays of each month.
How is such a thing possible? In Europe, people often take dull civil service jobs to at least have job security in exchange for salaries that are lower than in the private sector. It seems outrageous to me to 'punish' the entire population of the state by closing offices that people need. Such services are not profit-making operations and should have already been budgeted with taxpayers' money.
Californians looking to renew driver’s licenses, take tests for state jobs, file claims or seek many other services found themselves out of luck Friday. By early morning, about a dozen people stood on the sidewalk outside a Los Angeles high-rise where the Department of Industrial Relations is located. Five had planned to take an exam in an effort to register as garment workers.
“Why this office?” said Lisa Bacaro, 32, who had taken the morning off to take the exam. “In hard times, why can’t they close a different office? This is where people come for help with jobs. I am trying to take this test to start work, better work. I can’t believe this.”
