Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an ardent backer of John McCain's presidential bid, showed us his real vision of a "post-partisan" future, only it looks very much like the Bush/Rove past. California, like the nation, faces enormous fiscal challenges. But California is one of only three states that require a two-thirds majority to pass a budget. This lunacy gives the Republican minority, led by the governor, veto power over the budget. It's like having the equivalent of Mitch McConnell, David Dreier and John Boehner's Gucci-clad feet on the throat of the seventh largest economy in the world.
Governor Schwarzenegger, true to form, figured out a great Republican solution. He announced that he would sign an executive order to reduce the pay of some 200,000 state workers to the Federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour. That's $13,000 or so a year or about $1,083 a month. That's below even this government's poverty line for a family of two. Try living in Los Angeles on $1,000 a month. Just try.
Or try it in Sacramento. The govenror lives at the (non-union) Hyatt, where his accommodation for the past five or so years has cost about $400,000. That's at the negotiated "governor's special" of $239 per night. And even then, it's all paid for through a shadowy front organization that allows donors anonumously to pay for the governor's 500 thread count sheets and pillow cases without our knowing who they are or what they get for cradling the acting governor's head. We did a little math. At the governor's proposed rate of $6.55 per hour for state workers, it'd take just about a full work week to pya for one night at the Hyatt. That's before taxes and fees are deducted. Sounds good to me!
Yes, the governor says that he'll provide back pay to the workers once the budget is passed, but how much will that mean to people who barely make due on their salaries as is? In a time of record foreclosures, bank failures and gas prices, how precisely does Governor Schwarzenegger think these folks, on whose lives many in this state depend, will make it?
In the meantime, John McCain is due in San Francisco today (Monday) to enjoy a $100,000 per person fundraiser for his peoples' campaign. I'm betting a lot of state workers will be at that one.
The Courage Campaign launched a petition today, now signed by over 12,000 people including our briliant Speaker Karen Bass and President Pro Tem-Elect Darrell Steinberg demanding that the governor stop trying to wring cash flow out of workers who just don't have the cash to flow. This follows our two videos that brand the Republican Party as the Yacht Party for its consistent support of a loophole in the tax law that allows yacht and private jet owners to avoid paying sales taxes. It's only about $26 million a year -probably about Arnold's annual income-- but it makes a clear point. Schwarzenegger and McCain and Dreier and the whole crew would rather subsidize the rich than lead.
Post-partisan Arnold is total recall of a highly partisan Bush/McCain administration. The workers and people of California cannot afford four more years of Bush any more than can the nation. McCain-Schwarzenegger: More subsidies for the rich. No leadership. No clue.
UPDATE: I'll be in Sacramento today, July 28 2:00PM to present over 25,000 signed petitions to the governor. Assemblymember Dave Jones, who has led on this issue, will join us. We'll walk the petitions over to the Hyatt and ask the concierge to take them up to the governor's suite. Maybe he'll do a little light reading before bed. If he does, he'll see comments like this one, from Michele in Santa Barbara, who signed the Stop Arnold petition and said, "I have worked 38 years for the State and served the people with compassion and integrity. I will lose my home without my pay... Please do not use the workers to balance the budget!"
I admit I don't understand the complexities of CA politics, but IT IS UNCONSIONABLE for him to make people who hired with an understanding of what their pay would be, to take this RIDUCLOUS pay cut.
I also don't understand why there hasn't been media coverage of this?
BUT, HOW CAN ARNIE DO THAT TO PEOPLE WHO WERE HIRED WITH THE UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THEIR PAY WAS AND BENEFITS? PERHAPS THEY ALSO NEED TO JUST GET RID OF THE 'DEAD WOOD' IN THEIR EMPLOY
our people isn't learning.
Californians, keep in mind the next time you drive over an overpass, a Caltrans engineer designed that bridge; when you next swim in the ocean or a lake/stream, a state scientist has worked to keep that waterbody safe from pollution; when you're in a freeway accident, it's a CHP officer that's going to come to your assistance.
Do you really want these positions filled by people willing to work for the Federal minimum wage, even if only for a temporary few months? Do you really want to put your safety in the hands of the worst of the worst?
You get what you pay for.
If Ahnold manages to get his way and signs that "bill", then every one of those 200,000 State workers should just walk off the job.
Ahnold is punishing the wrong people - how about he refuse to pay all the State Legislatures until the budget is passed! That would create quick action!
I am from CA and even though I am a Dem, I have been behind Ahnold all the way in his struggle to get this state out of the financial mess Gray Davis made. But this . . . . well, this has soured me on Ahnold!!
Just because he is uber-wealthy and can afford to be the Governor and refuse to accept a wage does not mean that all the state employees can afford a DRASTIC pay cut.
As usual, the Dems are complaining about the 2/3 majority needed to pass budgets. How unfair it is. If it weren't for those damned voters who passed the constitutional amendment requiring a super majority to raise taxes, the world would be perfect. Any time that any one wants to change this way of doing business, the options couldn't be easier. Get an initiative on the ballot and let the voters decide.
There is an obvious solution. Revenues are down, raising taxes isn't going to happen so that leaves one option.
BTW, David Drier has nothing to do anything on a state level. Other than the fact that he might run for Governor in 2010 or go for what will probably be Feinstein's empty seat in 2012.
This Governor said he would rip up the credit card, instead he has taken out three more and mortgaged the house.
Making third parties pay for your own mistakes is criminal.
This former Republican wonders how far the party of responsibility will stoop to avoid responsibility.
The point of electing Schwarzenegger was that he would stand up to the hyper spending state legislature. Didn't happen, he became part of the problem. So now California is saddled with a partisan Republican governor campaigning for the excesses of the Bush administration that just like Bush did nothing to control spending in the good times and now California is saddled the state with greater fiscal problems than before he was elected.
They're both liberals. Kerry and Kennedy are no different. The Yacht Party is just a name for the Republicans and Democrats. They're flip sides of the same evil coin.
and the district had to close the "alternative" high school and they are putting it in a small building on our campus.
The music teacher and others are now being paid by "donations" from the 3 local cities
A prinicipal having to beg for PAPER!
Add that to the 'potential' pink slips handed out to hundreds of teachers and admin staff...
No wonder our kids are ranked so low in the civilized world.