May 29, 2009 12:14 am US/Pacific
Schwarzenegger: More State Worker Pay Cuts
SACRAMENTO (CBS 5 / AP) ―
-
-
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
AP
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will ask that more than 200,000 state employees take an additional 5 percent pay cut to deal with California's growing budget deficit, on top of an earlier reduction of nearly 10 percent.
The proposal comes after the governor ordered two-day-a-month furloughs that began in February and will be part of his plan to cut an additional $3 billion in state spending, Schwarzenegger Communications Director Matt David said. The governor will give the proposal to lawmakers on Friday.
David said the additional pay cut is projected to save the state $470 million in the coming fiscal year. Including the furloughs, the total savings would be about $1.8 billion.
Schwarzenegger and lawmakers are trying to create a spending plan that closes a $24.3 billion deficit. Because the deficit keeps growing as tax revenue sinks, the governor keeps having to revise his budget plans.
"There's not a minute of the day when I don't think about the kind of, and see the faces of the kind of people that this will affect," Schwarzenegger said Thursday in a general comment about the proposed budget cuts.
He appeared outside the Capitol at a promotion for a $56,000 electric Hummer.
The deficit grew from $15 billion to $21.3 billion when voters rejected three of the ballot measures during the May 19 special election and now stands at $3 billion more.
In February, state employees began taking two days off a month without pay or opted for a similar salary reduction.
The governor also ordered state agencies to cut their payrolls by 10 percent and has proposed eliminating 5,000 state government positions, although 400 of them are currently vacant.
The governor's proposed pay cuts for state employees mirror the recession's toll elsewhere in California. Personal income statewide declined this year for the first time since 1938 and unemployment is 11 percent, one of the highest rates in the nation.
The Schwarzenegger administration had reached a tentative deal with the largest state employee union that would have reduced the number of furlough days for the union's 95,000 members to one day a month, instead of two.
The contract agreement failed to pass the Legislature after Republicans objected, saying lawmakers should wait until after the special election to get a clearer picture of the state's fiscal condition.
Yvonne Walker, president of the SEIU local that represents those employees, said state workers already have made sacrifices that are saving the state hundreds of millions of dollars.
"Before the governor makes one more cut or lays off one more state worker he should cancel the 15,000 personal vendor contracts, worth more than $5 billion, that the state has entered into in the five months since the governor declared a fiscal emergency," Walker said in a statement Thursday.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments