California governor Schwarzenegger declares state of fiscal emergency

[Hannah Bell]

After having failed in its attempt to impose a minimum wage order on California state workers, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of fiscal emergency last Thursday. This allowed him to sign into a law a measure requiring state workers to resume taking three unpaid days off per month, a practice which had just been ended on July 1. It marks the third time in as many years that the governor has unilaterally reduced state worker hours and pay to address California’s ongoing financial crisis.

The furloughs, which will affect more than 150,000 workers, will begin the second Friday in August. The order affects all state departments except for the Franchise Tax Board, Employment Development Department, State Compensation Insurance Fund, Housing Finance Authority and California Earthquake Authority. Employees in the Highway Patrol and Department of Fire and Forestry Protection are also exempt.

The order also excludes 37,000 state workers who are part of six public employee unions that signed agreements with the Schwarzenegger administration last June, which increased workers’ minimum retirement age by five years and raised their pension contributions by 10 percent. The Schwarzenegger administration hopes that as a result of the furlough order the remaining employee unions will agree to similar pension and wage changes...

The administration is making it clear that in one way or another it will reduce state employee pension benefits. The current order, unlike its predecessors, has no set expiration date. Furthermore, the governor has promised not to pass any budget that does not include a complete overhaul of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, CalPERS.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/cali-a02.shtml


Don't expect Jerry Brown to save you either, Californians:

As governor between 1975 and 1983, Brown proved himself an intransigent advocate of fiscal austerity, freezing state worker wages and eliminating nearly 3,000 positions at the Department of Transportation. At his second inaugural address in January 1979, Brown spoke in terms that are now virtually indistinguishable from those of the current governor. “Government,” he said, “no less than the individual, must live within limits. It is time to bring our accounts in to balance.”


He loves charter schools, too.


That's democracy, folks! Heads you get whitman, who's going to grind you & bust your unions, tails you get brown, who's going to do the same thing.


The great state of california. It's a crime.

[napi21]

1. So increase the taxes AH! nt

[SpiralHawk]

2. This is the putrid fruit of Republiconomics

Talk about epic FAIL.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

3. "Go west young man!"... oh wait... nethermind

[aquart]

4. Heckuva job, Arnold.

[deacon]

5. He's such a loser. Put that Reagan statue up in your honor Arnie. n/t

[warrior1]

6. Freezing our wages

only kept us from getting cost of living increases. Arnold the failure furloughs and gives us min. wages.

Also, Jerry Brown and the AG has refused to furlough the dept of Justice during this time. We did savings by cutting back. Living within out means. He knows what he's doing.

[Starry Messenger]

7. Great, ain't it?

And yet--www.cbp.org/pdfs/2009/0906_pp_IncomeGaps.pdf

NEW DATA SHOW THAT CALIFORNIA’S INCOME GAPS CONTINUE TO WIDEN

New data from the Franchise Tax Board show that California’s income gaps continue to widen as the share of adjusted
gross income (AGI) going to the wealthiest personal income taxpayers rises and the share going to middle-income
taxpayers falls.1 The latest data, which predate the current recession, show that the gap between the wealthiest 1 percent of
taxpayers and those with incomes in the middle of the distribution increased between 2006 and 2007, reflecting a longer-term
pattern of widening inequality.

The new data also provide further evidence that the economic expansion of this decade failed to
benefit most Californians. {bwah ha ha Capt. Obvious---me} While economic growth helped to more than triple total corporate profi ts between 2000 and 2007, total
AGI rose only modestly, and the increase in AGI was concentrated among the wealthiest California taxpayers.

The total AGI of California’s personal income taxpayers rose by nearly $64 billion between
2006 and 2007, after adjusting for infl ation. Approximately three-quarters (76.8 percent) of
this increase went to the wealthiest fi fth of taxpayers. A full 30.0 percent of AGI gains went
to the top 1 percent of taxpayers, amounting to an additional $19.0 billion for fewer than 150,000 taxpayers.

In contrast, 6.0 percent of the increase in AGI – $3.8 billion – went to
the 3 million taxpayers with incomes in the middle fifth of the distribution. To put these
uneven gains in context, the average taxpayer in the top 1 percent experienced a $128,261
increase in AGI between 2006 and 2007, which was more than three times the total AGI of
the average middle-income taxpayer in 2007 ($36,115).

That was prepared by the CA Franchise Tax Board, so someone at the top here knows that the rich folks have the $$. But let's not raise taxes, oh no, Mr. CEO might have to forgo that yacht upgrade this year.