Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to furlough state workers an additional day each month starting in July if lawmakers do not send him an immediate solution for the entire $24 billion budget deficit, he said Friday.
| Fair enough -- if he can't fire them and they won't accept a pay cut, but there isn't enough money, they get to work less. |
Schwarzenegger's move would force at least 215,000 state workers to take three unpaid days of leave each month, the equivalent of a 14 percent pay cut in all. A third furlough day would strike another economic blow to the Sacramento region, where more than 80,000 area residents work for the state.
The Republican governor framed the additional furlough day as an effort to preserve cash as the state faces the prospect of issuing IOUs starting Thursday to vendors and low-income disabled and elderly residents.
"It's clear that if the Legislature does not send a full budget solution to my desk by June 30, California will face an extreme cash-flow problem that will threaten our ability to pay for vital services," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "I cannot force the Legislature to act, so I must do what is in my power as governor to conserve cash so that the state can continue to operate."
The state would save about $61 million in cash in July alone with an additional furlough day -- and $184 million with all three days of unpaid leave, according to the Department of Finance.
But Hallye Jordan, spokeswoman for Democratic state Controller John Chiang, said the cash shortage for July is currently pegged at $2.78 billion, and that the savings from one day's furlough would not provide enough savings to avoid having to issue IOUs in July.
State employees would schedule the third furlough day, like the other two, on their own, said Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear.
The Legislature and the state judiciary are exempt from the governor's furlough plan because they are separate branches of state government. An estimated 15,000 employees who work for constitutional officers, such as Chiang or Attorney General Jerry Brown, also have avoided furloughs because the question of whether Schwarzenegger can compel them to do so is tied up in court. |