State Worker Ping Pong

Yesterday a colleague who is retiring tomorrow commented on the ongoing furlough fights between California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the unions representing most of the 240,000 state employees. He said that it felt like he was in a ping pong match.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Frankly, I’m tired of the Governor using state workers as pawns in the legislative budget battle. California has gone 43 days without a budget. So far, there have been reports that the governor and the California Legislature are three-quarters of the way toward a budget. Democrats and Republicans are still haggling over the $4 billion in proposed tax revenues to fill the $19 billion gap in the 2010-2011 budget.

Two weeks ago, when state Controller John Chiang announced that the state would run out of money by October, Schwarzenegger reinstated furloughs after affected state workers endured them for 18 months. Our July paycheck was the first time since February 2009 that we received full pay. Our newest round of furloughs was to start the second Friday in August.

The unions filed a request with the Alameda County Superior Court to block the latest furloughs. On Monday night, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Steven A. Brick sided with the workers and ordered a temporary restraining order on the furloughs. Typical Arnold, he filed an appeal with the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco, stating that Brick’s TRO “will exacerbate the ongoing fiscal and cash crisis in California and will correspondingly harm the state and the public.” Yeah, right.

Sorry for the cliché, but I’ve gone through an emotional (not to mention financial) roller coaster with these furloughs. I wish that the Governor and Legislature would get its act together and figure out something. I just want to know how much, if any, money I’ll be taking home each month for how long.

(Blogger’s Note: I just learned that we have to report to work tomorrow. The colleague just said a four-letter word. Couldn’t have said it better myself.)