Schwarzenegger Wants To Trim California's 14 Holidays For State Workers
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California's generous offering of holidays for state workers _ the equivalent of nearly three work weeks _ is among the items Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking to trim to help counter a mounting budget deficit.
Lincoln's Birthday and Columbus Day would get the ax under a proposal the governor's administration estimates will save $114 million during this fiscal year and the next one starting in July.
"We think it's not so painful to give up a couple of holidays," said Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger's finance director.
Union leaders are resisting the move, but California isn't the only state looking to save money by cutting back on paid days off.
New Jersey passed a benefit-cutting bill in September that included eliminating Lincoln's Birthday as a state paid holiday amid a budget deficit projected to reach $1.2 billion in the current fiscal year. Gov. Jon Corzine also stopped the tradition of giving employees the day after Thanksgiving as a paid day off.
Utah, which is experimenting with a four-day work week, eliminated Columbus Day as a paid holiday.
Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, said California and New Jersey are rare because they offer so many paid holidays to government workers: 14 in California, which includes a "personal holiday," and 13 in New Jersey.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average number of paid holidays for state and local government employees nationwide is 11 days a year. The average private-sector employee receives eight paid holidays.
California is one of only a few states that has not merged Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays. It also gives workers a day off each spring to honor labor leader Cesar Chavez.
Groups representing state workers criticized the plan to eliminate two holidays because it does not solve the state's massive deficit.
Dave Hart, president of the California State Employees Association, said state workers already are facing a double hit. Schwarzenegger also proposes making most state workers take one day off a month without pay, and Hart said they will be further squeezed by the governor's plan for a three-year, 1 1/2-cent increase in the state sales tax.
"The governor says he values state employees, but it sure doesn't feel like it," Hart said.
Schwarzenegger is trying to address a state budget deficit expected to grow to $28 billion by June 2010.
Hart said most bargaining units are in contract negotiations and would fight the proposals to furlough workers and eliminate paid holidays if they emerge from the special legislative session Schwarzenegger has called to deal with the budget deficit.
Debbie Berman, a single mother of four who has worked for the California Employment Development Department for 10 years, said the state simply could stop paying overtime on holidays to save money. Berman, 38, said she relies on paid days off to bond with her children.
"It would be a day that I would normally have off to do something special with my kids," she said. "As it is, you work 9-hour days and then your kids are in school and you don't have as much time to spend with them, so you look forward to having those holidays."
Ron Shelton, who has been in the trucking industry for 26 years, said he receives six paid holidays a year and supports the governor's proposal to reduce the number given to the 230,000 state government workers.
"I think it's perfectly fair given the situation the state's in right now," Shelton, 54, said as he unloaded boxes from his truck in downtown Sacramento. "I mean, everybody's got to give."
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JUDY LIN | November 14, 2008 04:02 PM EST |
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