The Terminator

Without a qualm, or a thought to the people's lives he was affecting, Governor Schwarzenegger signed an order yesterday to reduce government employees salaries to the minimum wage of $6.55 an hour, (which could affect 200,000 people) because of the budget stalemate. Luckily, State Controller John Chiang, who writes the checks, is refusing to comply with the payroll cuts. (I think Chiang and Nancy Pelosi should get Government Employee of the Month award!)

But am I the only person who remembers this Arnold Schwarzenegger campaign mantra, "I understand business. I will make the economy and budget of California work."

Then, why doesn't he institute tax credits for the movie business and bring business back to California? The movie business, that funny business that was so lucrative and employed so many people. And that is supposed to be a business he does understand.

Comments

[UnbiasView]

Then last week Toyota announced it is canceling plans to build its new Prius hybrid at its plant in the San Francisco Bay area because of the high tax and regulatory costs. Adding to the humiliation is that Toyota will now take this investment and about 1,000 jobs to a more progressive and pro-business state: Mississippi.

[wadenelson1]

If you think Mississippi is progressive you've obviously never lived there.

[blooddoc]

Come, now. Mississippi politicians are only a little bit to the right of Genghis Khan.

[MamaBird62]

Good for California for not selling out to Toyota. It's always the southern states willing to sell out their environment and their workers to big business. Look at BMW in South Carolina; Mercedes in Alabama. The plants suck up precious fresh water, pollute the air, and the state charges them little to no taxes on their profits, trains their workers for free, and pretty much guarantees the companies they won't be bothered by unions or living wages. BMW in Spartanburg pays workers $12.50 an hour (slightly more if you work graveyard shifts), barely living wage even there. Very little difference from the textile mills that used to abuse the area's cheap labor pool, before they discovered they could do even better in Asia. We are the new Mexico.

[drumz]

Ahnold is so rich he defers his payments as Governor. But that doesn't mean he turns down the millions in perks from his con I mean conservative friends looking to keep free of any burdens like taxes and a safe work environment.

[goldcoastsailor]

What people here don't understand is that the state benefits from the run up in real estate values. Every time a house sells it is revalued to current market. The state then spends money like a drunken sailor until real estate falls back as it seems to do every 10 years or so. We are in that situation again now. Real estate values drop, everyone tightens their belt, it just takes government longer to do so. I have seen this happen over and over in my 35 years in the state.

[wilburr0g]

Mass immigration, both legal and illegal, has destroyed California. The population of CA was 10 million in 1950. Now it is about 35 million. It is also a white minority state torn apart by selfish and hateful identity politics. Unfortunately the grim picture it presents will be America's future as well if the government does not stop its mindless mass immigration policy.

[goldcoastsailor]

I've lived in and sailed up and down the California coast for 30 years. As a self-employed carpenter, I can tell you the one thing that has made this state great is prop. 13. The term "state worker" is an oxymoron.
Allowing people to enjoy their homes without being forced to leave because of rising property taxes has allowed people like me to remain here. The middle class in this state is constantly being assaulted by the lack of immigration policy and politicians trying to do an end run around prop. 13. I only wish Arnold had started his pay cuts at the top instead of the bottom. Everywhere I look, I see new schools going up, road projects everywhere, and state workers pay going up while the rest of us self-employed folks feel the economic downturn. It seems the only unions in California are government employee unions.

[mergina]

What a mindless thing to do. Oh, I bet he is a popular terminator this weekend. Yikes. And in California no less where everyone has to drive, and with the price of gas. Why doesn't he just help them all move to their new homes under the expressways?

[UnbiasView]

I guess the California liberal model of tolerance and diversity comes with a price tag. CA is ultimate liberal experiment and is failing like Bush.

[drumz]

Keep drinkin the kool-aid son it makes you so smart - NOT!

[RobinSeattle]

So Arnold is going to punish state workers for the failures of the pols in Sacramento. This is like punishing Iraq for 9/11. He is just following the managerial example of George W. Bush.

Besides, why would any California native vote Republican? The GOP hates the state because it isn't another Mississippi or Alabama.

[UnbiasView]

Are you honestly blaming the R's on a $15 billion dollar budget deficit?

Read the story, the state congress can't get him a budget . . . which are Dem controlled. Every big spending politician in CA is responsible.

[drumz]

ENRON is all you have to know

[LeonBNJ]

The Governator is really using extortion of the lower paid workers in the state to force lower pay and benefits on many unionized workers in the state. That is wrong and is being challanged in the courts.
California has a lot of social benefits but can't afford them now. They are burdened with Billions in the social, medical, schools and justice costs of illegals while those that hire them save Billions they put into their pockets. Prop 13 was one of the worst ideas unless you are a low income retiree still living in your old home, but no politican will touch it.
California needs to make a through review of it's social policies, tax policies and how to get the Feds to help with the costs to the government of illegals, excessively high housing costs and so on.

[Torus34]

The California calamity is a good example of the glib slogans of the tax reductionists fleshed out into law.

The fault lies with those in government who promulgated the ideas, with those in government who did not oppose them and with the public, who bought into the concept that government could cut taxes without curtailing services.

[UnbiasView]

California is a the perfect example of an entitlement / government handout state, if you want all of that you are going to have to get taxed through the nose.

[drumz]

Prove it simpleton

[DMSmith]

I think it's time the California folk remember how Mr. S got into office - a recall. Although that one was a set-up...this one will be richly deserved. He doesn't need to use these employees of our state as pawns. There are other ways to get this done.

He needs to be slapped back into the movies!

[leftcoastliberal]

Prop 13 may have saved homeowners a lot of money on property taxes, but it's devastated the state's infrastructure, impoverished the schools, and led to a series of insane deficits that help no one. So-called "libertarians" (greedy rich folk who prefer Ayn Rand's atrocious novels to reality) have convinced people that taxes are theft rather than - as George Bernard Shaw put it - the price we pay for civilization.

[DLB]

Illegal immigration is devastating California, not the unwillingness of Californians to pay their fair share of taxes. Your Ayn Rand argument is a ruse.

[Annette]

Californians have always had illegal immigration, at time in larger numbers than now. Their kids have always been educated in California, and thier ill have always been treated in California hospitals. When I went to school in the 1950s in California every class I was in had recent illegal immigrants from mexico, the kids learned english and became just additional kids in the classroom. We had textbooks for every kid in the class, we had pencils and scratch paper, we had field trips usually 3 a year. The roads were well maintained. California had an excellent University system which was inexpensive. It had a very good public health system. Now the roads are potholed,schools no longer have field trips, you want a text book you can read one in the classroom.
We retired and moved to a state with higher taxes. Yes we pay a bit more but our roads are well maintained, The kids in our schools get textbooks issued to them, Even the DMV here is fully staffed and efficient. Our public servents are not the scapegoat of every attempt at grandstanding by our governer. Prop 13 has been a disaster for California. Worried about the retirees being taxed out of their homes. Give retirees an 80% exemption. Who benefits are large companies which are draining the state dry.

[iswideopen]

Didn't you know, it's the Dog Food Brand Republican Way. If you are not big oil, a coproration, big business, or "one of them", you simply do not matter. Where have you been living?

[CaptainVideo]

Clearly the state workers need to go on strike and shut the state down. This is what happens when you put an actor into a serious job that requires competence.

[melakfilms]

Those state employees whose salaries will be reduced to 6.55 per hour should not show up to work from the first day this mandate is initiated. It seems incredibly callous to place the weight of this crisis upon the shoulders of the hard working social servants of our state.

Only a multi-millionaire who is completely out of touch with the middle class could dream up this solution.