CA state workers

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Boy does this suck. My best friend is getting paid minimum wage right now. She's fine because she's single, financially responsible, has an EF, and pretty frugal.

But she'll make she told me $700/month and her 1 bedroom rent is $1500. It's really sucking.

Worse she tells me LOTS of people she works with live paycheck to paycheck and are super worried. What are they going to do? Especially if they lose their jobs? Read about it here.

Schwarzenegger makes layoffs, orders pay cuts for California state workers - Los Angeles Times

[m3racer]

CA is the model of state government incompetence. They generate the highest amount of state tax revenue but yet they're still in a fiscal mess. It's mind boggling. I'd be sahamed if I were a part of CA legislature. Who are these politicians? Than again, maybe Californians should look in the mirror and blame themselves for putting these extreme left wing liberals into office.

[maat55]

I think government should be very limited. These people are no different than people working for an private company. Like a company, gov. should have to maintain a balanced budget. No one should ever feel safe wherever they work. They should save and live as debtfree as possible. I'm surprised the property values stay so high in CA.

In OK, you can find much lower cost housing. I think CA. may have to many socialistic programs to be able to pay it's employees for necessary services. Every state should think infrastructure first and cut the pork out of its budget to remain balanced. It's law in OK.

[m3racer]

It truly irks me when I hear that the state and federal government is trying to raise taxes. For crying out loud, the state and federal government has a huge budget. Its time to cut down on spending not raise taxes for more spending!!!! I hope one day these retarded politicians can figure this out.

[m3racer]

I think CA. may have to many socialistic programs to be able to pay it's employees for necessary services. Every state should think infrastructure first and cut the pork out of its budget to remain balanced. It's law in OK.

There lies the problem. Too many people expect freebies form the government!!!

[Seeker]

Guys, California is the 5th richest state of this country. Why? Hollywood has a good deal to do with it. The fact that people flock to the warmth here. A lot of the major technical industries are also in this state.

The fact that there's just so much happening in this state from so many perspectives, makes it a very different and active sort of state.

I used to be a city employee. There are pros and cons to that too. There are still water shortages, the electricity system gets overwhelmed on the hottest days, gasoline costs more because of additives put into our gasoline, etc. but ultimately people still come here. Too many people on the freeways, but we have to do what we have to do.

The costs of living here still rise, but jobs are still available; and jobs that pay well enough in order to be able to live here. So that's the circle. Government is government; for every wise voter, there's probably 10 or more people that don't really care.

The reason the property values are still so high is because of demand. The "rich" areas are not declining. Some of them are still increasing because of demand. Sure, you can find lower cost housing or distressed properties, but for the most part the "hurt" is temporary.

[MonkeyMama]

It gets better. The state controller refuses to comply, on principle initially, and has since said that the payroll system is so outdated it can't handle the change. (I believe it. I am sure there are a lot of controls in place from messing with the payroll system so dramatically, regardless. Like maybe you can't pay people less than their withholdings, etc. First thing I thought of).

Anyway, so Arnold is SUING him. & there goes our tax dollars.

I heard recently, not sure where that went, that Arnold was also proposing to raise the sales tax rate by 1%, "temporarily" for 4 years. Because 8% just isn't high enough. LEt's make it 9%.

I just cringe at what Arnold promised, and what he has done to this state. Everyone was FLIPPING out because Davis proposed some $50 vehicle license tax increase to balance the budget. That was the end of the world, but raising income tax rates dramatically, state sales taxes dramatically, screwing the state workers, and borrowing very heavily from the future is apparently all fine and dandy. Thank god we didn't let Davis pass that teeny tiny tax.

BTW, I think Davis was terrible, but Arnold is beyond words. What a freaking mess. No, I didn't vote for this clown.

[tripods68]

Fortunately, there are several CA Agencies that do not rely on general funds and therefore are EXEMPT from the Governor's cuts and layoffs. My department is one of them. So I'm very thankful for that.

The CA legislatures and the Gov needs to put something together soon. This is nothing new in politic. They always "jockeying" for pet projects and blames the other party for the deficits. The ones that are truly hurts by this are the people who provide goods and services/vendors to the state and state employees who are being used as pawns. I still believe all state employees will still get paid with full salary in September since Mr. Chiang (State Controller's Office) has said he will not follow the Governor's Executive Order. By then we should have a budget in placed already...I hope.

I agree with Seeker. California is a very diverse and active state. Too many lobbyists want their hands inside the "cookie jar". Republicans wants a spending CAP and no tax increase. The Democract wants tax increase and NO spending caps. No one is blinking right now. All we have are lawsuits flying all around the Capitol. It's a complete circus.

[Scanner]

You guys have it good - try living in NJ.

The best and worst states for taxes - MSN Money

Look at all the economy you have in CA and yet, you only have a rank of 8 to 12 in taxes.

You don't hear New Jersians belly-acheing.

[Seeker]

You guys have it good - try living in NJ.

The best and worst states for taxes - MSN Money

Look at all the economy you have in CA and yet, you only have a rank of 8 to 12 in taxes.

You don't hear New Jersians belly-acheing.

Well I'm not sure that those numbers represent the different counties of CA, because Northern is different from Southern and different from Los Angeles and different from all the other counties. I know that different counties "assign" different tax rates (even pre-tax). I know too, that I've not seen a sales tax rate of less the 8.25% for a long time. I remember paying over 9% in this area for awhile; I think maybe during Desert Storm.

But the original belly-acheing was the state's lack of a fiscal plan and it's impact on "we the people." If New Jersian's governor where here, it may be different, but it's doubtful. Because there's so many people here, there's also so much politics. One person, whomever the govornor is, can only do so much.

What you'll probably see in the future in California is the disappearing of the middle-class as a whole. There's will either be the rich or the poor here... and probably other states will follow afterward. This is the way the US is headed... very rich or very poor, but no more in-between.

[Scanner]

Erosion of the middle class has been a pet topic of mine for a long time.

The Republican or Democrats would be smart to jump on that topic and run with it but I think the Conservative back-lash felt in the 90's with Contract With America makes politicians gun-shy on "protecting the middle class."

The Rush Limbaugh cult has to a large extent been successful in equating "protecting the middle class" with "liberalism."

The problem will be is the middle class is who largely fight wars for us and are the repository of values.

If we don't protect the middle class, America in essence will be defenseless and amoral.

[cptacek]

Boy does this suck. My best friend is getting paid minimum wage right now. She's fine because she's single, financially responsible, has an EF, and pretty frugal.

I'm confused...I thought the state controller's office said they weren't going to implement, and also that the payroll system was written in COBOL or something and they couldn't rewrite it in time?

Something isn't adding up here. Either your friend is getting minimum wage or the controller is blocking the implementation. Which is it?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

They'll find out when they get paid. They were told they are getting minimum wage.

[Seeker]

Interesting state budget proposal.... 335 pages of it.

http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/pdf/BudgetSummary/FullBudgetSummary.pdf

What a mess.

[b4freedom]

Part of this problem rests on the federal government’s lap.

Question: Let’s assume that two states, say California and New Mexico, decided to privatize all social services and public works to the same company, ZYX, inc. ZYX, inc. calculates that it will charge a flat fee of $100 to each state for each person that receives or uses the social service or public works. Between the two states, what state must charge a higher tax to its citizens in order pay for the identical social and public works programs?

Answer: California?

Question: Why?

Answer: Because the Federal government spends money that subsidizes some states at the financial burden of the others. Federal Spending Received Per Dollar of Taxes Paid by State, 2005: California: $0.78; New Mexico: $2.03. (Source: The Tax Foundation - Federal Spending Received Per Dollar of Taxes Paid by State, 2005)

I live in New Jersey. Our state gets the least amount, $0.61. I’m anti government spending (not anti-tax – see note below) because I pay $8,000 in property taxes for a small 1500 sq foot house on a ¼ acre; plus one of the highest state income tax rate in the Nation; plus 6% sales tax; plus all of the other ways they nickel and dime me to death. Now, I concede that there is a lot of waste in NJ. A lot of waste. But a large part of my overall cost in taxes benefits poorer states.

Now, on a political note, I think Republican states need to stop complaining about federal taxes because you’re the biggest beneficiary of it. And Democrats should work to cancel federal spending that primarily benefits poorer Republican states. How is it that the two parties have positions that ultimately help themselves the least? If Republicans were smart they’d keep silent and let the Democrat states keep subsidizing their states. And if the Democrats were smart they’d stop all federal spending as to not subsidize the Republican states. Maybe that’s why I’m independent.

(Note: I’m ethically against non balanced budgets as I believe increased debt financial bankrupts our children’s and grandchildren’s future for our own gain. I’m against deficit spending. The government should not be allowed to borrow money. Our politicians want to cut taxes but none of them actually cut spending. This, in my mind, makes them inherently immoral people because they don’t mind bankrupting my kid’s future.)