Lawmakers blast governor's minimum wage cut order

Eureka Reporter

With the state's financial crunch and the 2008-09 budget yet to be adopted, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order Thursday eliminating 22,000 jobs and ordering the salaries of more than 200,000 state employees be cut to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour.

“Today, I am exercising my executive authority to avoid a full-blown crisis and keep our state moving forward,” Schwarzenegger stated in a news release. “This is not an action I take lightly, but we do not have a budget, and as Governor, I have a responsibility to make sure our state has enough money to pay its bills.”

Included in the order is termination of services of retired state employees, permanent intermittent employees, seasonal employees, temporary help workers and student assistants.

Employees exempt under the order include those deemed critical to “preserve and protect human life and safety.”

State Controller John Chiang is refusing to comply with the order to pay federal minimum wages.

Throughout the state, departments are in the process of identifying which employees are exempt.

Local lawmakers weighed in on the governor's action Thursday.

“I think he is doing political grandstanding that will only create more legal peril,” said Assemblymember Patty Berg.

“I think it's just a political ploy,” she said. “The Democrats have had a balanced budget for weeks,” not only for this year, but for the next fiscal year, she said.

“We've borrowed our way out of this mess for years,” she said, adding what is needed is structural reform.

“I'm just hoping that we can get a budget,” she said.

“The governor's using state workers as pawns. They're innocent bystanders in this process,” state Sen. Pat Wiggins said in a statement. “Why should they suffer? Their salaries don't make up a significant percentage of the state budget, so his action won't solve the problem.”

“We're talking about secretaries, clerks, maintenance workers and many others who have families, mortgages and bills to pay. These are dedicated civil servants â€" mental health workers, state highway engineers, safety inspectors on farms and others â€" who keep our state functioning. There is no justification for forcing this burden upon them.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson also issued a comment.

“In all of the years I chaired the state's Budget Committee I never saw such a blatant political charade. During the difficult budget years of the 1990s, I worked with Governor (Pete) Wilson to forge fiscal solutions â€" he was at the table the entire time and that's what Gov. Schwarzenegger needs to do rather than running around the state dreaming up punitive schemes that hurt the very people that serve the needs of our state and citizens.”