Posted on 07/31/2008 12:41:10 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - With California's cash dwindling and legislators still debating a new budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger eliminated 22,000 part-time and temporary state positions Thursday and ordered that 200,000 state workers receive the federal minimum wage.
His signing of the executive order had been expected since last week but stood as a stark illustration of the cash problem facing the nation's most populous state. Schwarzenegger apologized to state workers but said he had no choice.
"Today I am exercising my executive authority to avoid a full-blown crisis and keep our state moving forward," Schwarzenegger said. "This is not an action I take lightly."
Lawmakers have yet to agree on a spending plan a month after the state's fiscal year began, leaving California without the ability to pay for contractors, the higher education system and legislative employees.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers remain divided over how to close a $15.2 billion deficit, with Democrats favoring $8.2 billion in new taxes on corporations and the state's wealthiest residents. Republicans want a spending cap and oppose tax increases.
Adding to the fiscal mess has been an unprecedented number of wildfires this year, costing the state far more for emergency response than it had budgeted.
As of June, more than 30 states faced deficits totaling a projected $40 billion, or more than triple the gap of the previous year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
California is the last state with a fiscal year that begins July 1 that still does not have a budget. It is facing a $15.2 billion deficit, dwarfing that of all other states. The next highest at the start of the fiscal year was New York's, at $5.2 billion.
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The governor's order is certain to be challenged. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Yes, but they pretty much brought it on themselves. It’s not the “poor” states like MS and OK that have provided the impetus for the graduated income tax. If the liberal states want high taxes for rich people, then they should not complain when they get them, and they should not expect the poor states to bail them out of their fiscal folly on the theory that because they are rich, they pay more taxes, and the rest of us therefore owe them. The people who are in the best position to pay for this mistake are the people who made it, i.e. the Californians themselves.
I find it amazing that Californians repeatedly voted for two liberal senators that voted to increase federal taxes on their “wealthy” state citizens multiple times. In a high cost of living state all that does it takes money out of the state they claim to represent and pass it out as federal distributions to other states.
Stupid on steroids...
Only about six friggin years too late..
Way to go to chase all the money out of California... who's left?
The unions’ behavior is unacceptable and illegal. Put the leaders in jail indefinitely and confiscate the assets of each union under RICO.
Except for front-line public safety workers, fire every friggin’ one of ‘em, then eliminate the agencies or privatize. This would go a very long way towards undoing the socialists’ gains in this state.
One particularly great side benefit of this approach: there’d be no taxpayer funded bleeding hearts to provide services to illegals. They’d have every reason to head back to Mexico.
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