Work For The State? Might As Well Flip Burgers

Work For The State? Might As Well Flip Burgers

Cause hell, even In-n-Out workers make more than you do now. Then again, seven an a quarter - man I wish I was pullin down that kinda dough, you know. This is worth a good laugh, check out how Arnold just slashed salaries

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday ordered about 200,000 state workers to be paid the federal minimum wage this month because the state Legislature has not passed a budget.

Department of Personnel Administration Director Debbie Endsley sent the order in a letter to the state controller, who refused a similar order two years ago and may try to do the same thing this time. Most state employees will be paid the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour for the July pay period.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the change should be reflected in state employees' next paycheck. Workers will be paid in full retroactively once a budget is passed.

The Legislature has failed to take steps to close California's $19 billion budget deficit, even as the new fiscal year began Thursday.

Schwarzenegger's order does not affect a little more than 30,000 workers, including California Highway Patrol officers, who are in unions that recently negotiated new contracts with the administration. Those contracts included pay cuts and pension reforms that will save the state money.

Asked whether the Republican governor was sending a message to the unions that have not yet signed new contracts, McLear said no.

"We're sending a message to the controller to follow the law," he said.

Schwarzenegger made a similar order two years ago, but it never took affect because state Controller John Chiang refused to comply. The courts later sided with Schwarzenegger, but the matter is on appeal.

Jacob Roper, deputy press secretary for the controller, said Thursday that Chiang does not intend to follow the order, in part because the state's computerized payroll system cannot handle the change.

"This is uncharted waters here," Roper said. "No city, county or state has ever taken this action before."

Roper said the action could cost the state billions of dollars because the action would violate employment law.

Salaried managers who are not paid on an hourly basis would see their pay cut to $455 per week.

Oh boy, how that sweet retro pay will really help people after they have their utilities shut off or get evicted. One has to wonder what exactly happened to California. Then everyone will point out to that one that California has been fucked for a long time and even if we didn't elect our current Austrian body builder/action movie star to drive behind the wheel, we'd still be crashing into a brick wall because this state fucked itself a long time ago with the gipper.



Then again, by financially crippling state employees Arnold is circuitously smashing the state. Congrats Arnold, I support this decision in the most ironic of ways. I mean, let's get real (Cause the shit just got real, am I rite?) what was he suppose to do? Given that our state is in horrible debt and legally it's impossible to raise taxes.

This has really been something nearly 30 years in the making and it's good to see it finally starting to happen so people realize how fucking stupid Regan was. Let's flash back to Prop 13

Section 3. From and after the effective date of this article, any
changes in state taxes enacted for the purpose of increasing revenues
collected pursuant thereto whether by increased rates or changes in
methods of computation must be imposed by an Act passed by not less
than two-thirds of all members elected to each of the two houses of
the Legislature, except that no new ad valorem taxes on real
property, or sales or transaction taxes on the sales of real property
may be imposed.

Then 32 years pass by and people are surprised and left asking "WHY IS OUR STATE RUNNIG OUT OF MONEY?!? Stop spending! Stop fucking spending!!! America is awesome in the way that it refuses to do the one thing to save society, that thing being taxing the citizens who have it all. It really is honestly not Arnold's fault. The state doomed itself to this in a fit of fiscal conservatism 30 years ago and now we're finally realizing how stupid that was.

I mean, there's nothing Arnold can do about it. I mean, except for scaling back the prison system or revoking the executive order he signed that cut the car tax fee by 67% or actually working with the state assembly to get a fucking two-thirds majority approval on raising taxes. But here's the thing..

It's illegal for him to raise taxes by executive order
it's illegal for him to cut programs by executive order
it's illegal for him to sign an unbalanced budget
the legislature will never agree with him because it's gerrymandered as fuck

He tried fixing the last one with a ballot proposition when he first got into office but it got voted down because congressional democrats wanted to protect their gerrymandered as fuck seats and campaigned like hell against it -- so later Arnold struck a deal with Nancy Pelosi to let congressional districts be gerrymandered while fixing the state ones and that ballot proposition passed.



Unfortunately that took enough time that now we won't get new districts until next election after Arnold is termed out, so having a decent legislature will have to wait. So in the meantime it's either this or literally shut down programs. Since it's also illegal to borrow without authorization.

I mean, isn't it a legal requirement for this to happen when the state doesn't have any sort of budget? It's not like Arnold is trying to be a dick or anything. Hell, if anything, it's comical because by pushing this, he's also showing off that our shit is so old, we couldn't even try to fix it if we wanted to. There's essentially no way to actually implement this retroactive budget cause the paycheck system is run on donated macintosh computers from 1985

But just think of how worthless that job now feels. Salaried managers who are not paid on an hourly basis would see their pay cut to $455 per week. Think about it. California unemployment pays $450 a week max, tack on the $25 federal bonus and you come out ahead for NOT working and just getting fired. I think the option here is pretty obvious as to what to do.

Hell, you don't even have to get fired or anything. Because it's a wage reduction, you can still file for benefits. All the extra numbers of people filing would pretty much fuck everything over in our precious glass house economy.

Though, maybe it wont work after all. Unemployment benefits require state workers to process the paperwork and oh hey, what's this.. there's no more start workers because they all got their salaries slashed to $7.25. My plan just failed, oh well.



But anyhow, Controller Chiang is still stalling as much as possible and if the court order doesn't come down by the 21st, he won't comply and the workers will be good for august at least. The last time this almost happened banks said they'd give loans for state workers with accounts to keep them a float. Though if that failed, there's always suicide.

There's a record of California not doing the things necessary to keep us from sinking deeply into debt. Hell, they still won't comply with that federal order to release some number of nonviolent prisoners to relieve overcrowding. Arnold's actually taking it to the Supreme Court and unfortunately Clarence Thomas is still on the bench, the guy who thinks the 8th Amendment doesn't apply to prison conditions or inmate abuse and that 7-year-olds can be executed for stealing $50.

Just a little heads up here, this should come to no surprise but this is going to be entirely blamed on democrats and out-of-control spending, Chicago style politics, etc. pick your buzzword. If California had only listened to sensible conservative ideas, this wouldn't have ever happened.. What will Jerry Brown do to fix it all? Save us Meg! Save us from ourselves since you're clearly not in the pocket of anyone....

I think the long term outlook on all this can be summed up with one phrase; "Death is certain", because we can't raise taxes! Those multi-millionaires already pay too much!! We see now that Arnold was an awful choice for governor. Don't blame me, I voted for the Porno star!

No wait. I actually did vote for Arnold and am very proud of it. Did you see the other choices on the ballot? Porn star, shitty drug lawyer and Gary Coleman? Shit. Arnold was the best choice. Besides, let's face it - California's been fucked since Reagan anyway.

Even the 3rd District Court of Appeal doesn't give a fuck. They've upheld a 17-month old ruling allowing Governor Schwarzenegger to reduce state workers to minimum wage in the absence of a budget. The court, agreeing with a Sacramento Superior Court ruling, said State Controller John Chiang overstepped his authority by refusing to issue minimum-wage paychecks to state workers during the 2008 budget impasse.

And before you guys start asking if Arnold lowered his and the legislatures own compensation to min. wage, realize that Arnold doesn't take a paycheck. Though nice try, liberals. Let's just get on with it Arnold. Legalize it already. GET TO THE CHOOMA! We should just legalize weed, raise taxes. How hard is this? Well, I guess I don't know too well about how easy it is to get the weed legalized (Prop 19, yo!), but the taxes part is pretty hard, actually. Not helpful that Arnold said he had no intention of striking down Prop 13 as someone really has to.

I guess the reason California's woes are big news is only because it's a big ass state. Plenty of other states have similar or worse issues and many of those are far more systemic, such as the south for example. California's debt to GDP is actually quite good. Better than the national average. The problem is that in California it is illegal/impossible to fix it in any way.

In general, Red states tend to have better debt to GDP ratios than blue states. It's due to red states having fewer social services and their lower overall tax overhead attracts mega corporations.

I guess we're just going to ride this whole thing out. One really does hope that banks allow for loans. A lot of employees, if this does go through, will be seeing their next paycheck hit in the negatives since it's cumulative. But hey, Golden State, right? Wish they call could be Californian..

Golden State's Welfare At Risk

Golden State's Welfare At Risk

Ha ha ha, it's no wonder nature tries to burn our great state down every October. It knows that our government is complete shit and that we're in a hole so big that we can't even see the light at the end of the tunnel anymore. But hey, we can try to put small bandaids on this massive gushing wound.. so hey, why not take away Welfare. Bootstraps, bitches!

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked lawmakers Friday to eliminate the state's welfare program starting in October and dramatically scale back in-home care for the elderly and disabled as part of his May budget revision to close a $19.1 billion deficit.

The Republican governor also proposed cuts to state worker compensation. Besides asking for a 5 percent pay cut, 5 percent payroll cap and 5 percent increased pension contribution, Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting one day per month of pay in exchange for leave credit.

The proposal would affect all state workers under the governor's authority, regardless of whether they are general fund or special fund employees. Employees would not be able to cash out any of this unused leave credit when they leave state service. The plan would replace the three-day-a-month furloughs, which are due to end June 30.

Schwarzenegger said the sour economy, the failure of the Legislature to make cuts he proposed in January and the federal government's failure to come up with about $7 billion leaves policymakers with no choice but to make deep cuts.

Schwarzenegger also proposed eliminating state-subsidized child care for all but preschoolers as a way to reduce the state's education funding guarantee.

"We literally have to take the ladder away from the tree and shake the whole tree," he said. "We're left with nothing but tough choices. ... I know how many people are suffering out there and how tough this is going to be."

He did not respond directly when asked if his proposal to eliminate welfare was merely a negotiating position with the Democrat-dominated Legislature.

Schwarzenegger also said he would not sign a budget plan unless lawmakers agree to overhaul the budget process, including creation of a "rainy-day fund" and downsizing public employee pensions for new hires.

The governor did not propose any new tax hikes.

I have to say, that's one way to end the Welfare state. It's sort of a rock and a hard place situation. This is happening because Arnold turned down the oil industry money when he changed stances on offshore drilling. Considering what is happening in the Gulf Coast, I would say it's a good thing he changed that outlook of potentially allowing off shore drilling here. It's pretty fucked up that he's not raising taxes, but at least he did the right thing in the events preceding this.

But come on, he's ending a $1.4 billion program that would also mean losing $4 billion in federal matching funds while at the same time preserving $2 billion in corporate handouts? I'll go ahead and say it, Arnold is 100% of what the republican party claims to want to be but he is the only one with the balls to do anything and for that I applaud him. The fact that he's only doing this at the end of his term, I guess I could call him a pussy for that. Just look at what he's saying in that press conference.

"We literally have to take the ladder away from the tree and shake the whole tree," -Arnold

He wants people to literally starve to death. For those of you who feel that the population is too high, this should be happy news to you. And who's next? Meg Whitman?Ha! She's going to lose to Steve Poizner of all people and it's going to be comical. She's got a very hate-able face and in the TV age, that's a big liability in big-time elections. She has a political career only in the East Coast or The UK where that kind of ugly is the norm.

Or maybe we're going to elect that guy who was governor before I was alive. But we sure as hell wont elect a CEO who has done nothing but destroy companies and I wont be voting for whoever the fuck the other Republican guy with a chance is, I think his name is really Mumbly Joe. Just think of how fucked California would really be if we elect someone more conservative than Arnold.

I know someone in Oakland who gets food stamps and it was around $200 a month for a single person. He's got like $600 just relaxing on his EBT card, why a card? Because they think food stamps may make a person feel like they're poor... But because the benefits carry forward and there's no way to spend that much money on food each month unless you're buying everything at Whole Foods without coupons and letting stuff spoil... Let's just say that maybe the State hasn't been the best in managing this welfare.

But to remove it altogether? That's just silly and stupid. People, especially in this economy need some help and you can't tell them to bootstrap their way because then you'll have people starving to death. Even if you can buy Doritos with food stamps but not Vitamin pills, the system needs to be in place so if you need help, it's there for you.



It's like Prop 13 is Ronald Reagan's middle finger to our face forever. Just look at all those old people who love Prop 13 as they're paying $300 dollars in property tax on their 3 million dollar homes. We just can't raise taxes! California already has the highest taxes of any state!!! Why do you all want our businesses to flee and evacuate our totalitarian nightmare socialist state bleeding us dry with taxes taxes death and taxes. No no no! Gotta trickle down the wealth..

But again, California is the most progress state...

Ha! I love it when people say that. California is far from the most progressive socialistic state and it never has been even when Jerry Brown was governor. San Fransisco MAYBE progressive, I'd just say they're liberal leaning, LA is a toss up, San Diego is a total shit city filled with old rich republicans, bigoted mormons, teabagger types, and military assholes and is burdened by massive sprawl, no public transportation or even any sort of decent bike lane.

LA is less right leaning, but for every 1 person who is all for giving gays the right of being unhappily married, there's at least 2 fuckers who voted for Bush. Some parts of Inland California have a serious case of The Hills Have Eyes/Deliverance-vibes going on.

Let's face it. We're fucked up. This is almost good news compared to what we dilute ourselves with. This also means that people in the state have nothing let to lose and no reason at all not to literally swarm Beverly Hills and Orange County and loot absolutely everything they can carry.

California Is Fucked Again

California Is Fucked Again

If you need a reason to drink today, here's a big one. You may have remember when we went to hell and back to pass a budget to plug a ~$40 billion hole, the one that was signed on feb 20th? Welp here we are again:

Budget analyst sees new $8 billion deficit
The Legislature's budget analyst, Mac Taylor, declared today that the immense package of spending cuts, new taxes and loans aimed at closing the state's $40 billion budget deficit will fall short by $8 billion because the state's economy is continuing to falter.

"Unfortunately, the state's economic and revenue outlook continues to deteriorate," the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) said in a review of the package, which covered the remainder of this fiscal year and all of the next.

"Even in the few weeks since the budget was signed, there have been a series of negative developments. Our updated revenue forecast projects that revenues will fall short of the assumptions in the budget package by $8 billion. Consequently, the Legislature and governor will need to adopt billions of dollars in additional solutions in the coming months to bring the 2009-10 budget back into balance."

Taylor had some more bad news for the state's political leaders. Because so many of the "solutions" adopted last month are temporary, "without corrective actions, the state's huge operating deficits will reappear in future years - growing from $12.6 billion in 2010-11 to $26 billion in 2013-14."

Taylor said that to close the newly discovered $8 billion gap, the state should maximize its use of federal "stimulus" funds and "continue developing programmatic solutions, especially those his office has been recommending in recent months but the Legislature and the governor shunned in adopting their package last month.

The LAO report will renew the Capitol's partisan and ideological squabbling over spending cuts and new taxes and fuel calls on the left for even more tax increases and those on the right for deeper spending cuts. The full LAO report may be found here.

It took 21 days by my count to find $8 billion more debt. Looks like we're pretty much fucked, right? What the hell are they doing up in Sacramento, throwing money into the pacific? I guess I could blame Arnold. It's certainly not the first time an Austrian ran a state into the ground.



But the general feeling from those I talk to is that Arnold is trying but completely ham stringed by the house. When the guy who goes in on a platform of "I didn't need to take special interest money for my campaign! " Meets an entire judiciary who does, there's not a whole lot one man can do no matter how well-intentioned. And every concession he makes just further gridlocks the whole process.

Arnold would have made a good benevolent dictator, but with the seeping wall of scum on both sides of the aisle nothing's ever going to improve. If we're going to toss a scape goat to the mix we might as well pin it to Pete Wilson. He fucked things up so badly it would take an entire convoy of eunuchs to get them unfucked. Grey Davis just continued the pioneering fucking by Pete Wilson. Where else can we lay blame? Let's do the numbers.



1) republicans hard lining on any sort of tax increase with an extreme willingness to cannibalize any republican who votes for one
2) prop 13 prevents us from raising property taxes
3) we got fucked hard hard hard when the dot com bubble burst
4) then we got fucked again when the housing bubble burst
5) requires 2/3 super majority to pass budget so a few republicans (see 1) can stall process indefinitely
6) but voters can vote for any spending they damned well please with a 50% vote in an election but raising taxes again takes 2/3
7) not smart enough to have made a rainy day fund when things were good
8) people who live in California are Californians and thus retarded

A little more alarming is that Friday was Pink Slip Friday. A lot of teachers got their pink slip. So while we're finding more debt, we're also slashing public education by millions. Oddly enough we're also increasing funds to prisons by 9%. I think something is wrong with this picture. Can you tell me what it is?

Based on current spending trends, California's prison budget will overtake spending on the state's universities in five years. No other big state in the country spends close to as much on its prisons compared with universities.

But California has all but guaranteed that prisons will eat up an increasingly large share of taxpayer money because of chronic failures in a system that the state is now planning to expand.

Under a new state law, California will spend $7.4 billion to build 40,000 new prison beds, and that is over and above the current annual operating budget of more than $10 billion. Interest payments alone on the billions of dollars of bonds that will be sold to finance the new construction will amount to $330 million a year by 2011 -- all money that will not be available for higher education or other state priorities.

....

According to the May revisions of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget, the state will spend $10 billion on prisons in fiscal 2007-08, a 9 percent increase from last year.

Civil servants make more than rookie professional school grads. Oh, and half the state is employed as prison guards. the other half is in prison which really makes for an interesting revenue / spending problem. Nobody in social services gets paid well. Supported Living attendants get $9.50/hr.



Fuck the department of corrections and everyone involved with their budget. I can't think of a bigger waste of money other than if the prisons were run by AIG. On second thought, since they're getting so much fuckin' money they should be put to work running the prisons. I'm sure they'll burn to the ground within a month of their take over.

I'm just going to throw it out there but abolishing the death penalty in California would save the state 63.3 million. Just saying.

It's not like we're helping our own case here. Especially when California cities are buying and selling stimulus funds at a discount.



So basically, the federal government gives a city money for roads, and they sell that road money for 60% of face to another city for unrestricted cash. Imagine how bad that would be if they were trading stuff like medical or education funds.

I can sympathize. I was playing sim city and balancing the budget is really hard. in sim city putting prisons all over your shit makes you money.

As for the random pictures in this post? Well, I just want to highlight some of the better things of the state. Some of the reasons why we need to save ourselves from... ourselves.