(California governor) Brown proposes 4-day week for state workers

[alp227]

Source: SF Chronicle

Gov. Jerry Brown proposed significant cuts to state courts and state worker pay - including reducing state employees' workweek to four days - to help close a $15.7 billion gap between revenue and expenses for California's fiscal year that begins July 1.

In announcing his revised budget proposal, which he called both "difficult" and "real, increased austerity," the governor also pressed his case for voters to approve a tax initiative that he is pushing in the November election.

The governor's plan already counts the revenue the tax initiative would bring in - and if voters reject the taxes, then even deeper cuts would be required, Brown said. Those would include midyear cuts to public schools, community colleges and the University of California and California State University systems.

Brown spoke at the Capitol and immediately flew to Los Angeles, where he also made his case for his $91 billion general-fund spending plan. The general fund pays for most state services.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/14/MN8I1OHTTO.DTL&ao=all

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A four-day workweek would reduce access to services like the DMV for those with a 9-5 daily work week. Could weekend appointment access to such services work?

[LeftyMom]

1. Well there goes the local economy.

*sigh*

[KamaAina]

9. We already have "Furlough Fridays" every other week

this would just expand them to every week.

And yes, Sac's economy in particular is in the tank; its transit agency is just now getting around to restoring ANY service after 9 PM, all of which was cut last year.

[LeftyMom]

11. Yeah, and an astonishing number of routes are just canceled until further notice.

People who don't live on the grid or right by a light rail stop are screwed at any time of the day. Transit here was awful before the cutbacks.

[shanti]

14. furloughs are still on?

i thought they were finished quite awhile ago...

[KamaAina]

16. Oh, goodness, no

this is the "new normal" as long as the repukes can stop any tax hikes simply by holding their breath until they turn blue.

The Jerry Brown of old would have locked them all in a room and told them, "You will pass a budget, it will include taxes, and you're not leaving until you do." What happened to him?

[Suji to Seoul]

2. Raising taxes on the wealthy of course is never on the table

And cutting out business/corporate loopholes, subsidies and tax breaks???

Just keep driving workers into the ground. Some progressive.

[Sherman A1]

3. Agreed

[JDPriestly]

4. Actually, raising taxes on the wealthy is on the table in California,

but it will take more than that to keep current services going if we are to service and repay the debt we amassed when we had Republican governors.

[elzenmahn]

5. If anyone on this blog...

...voted for Pete Wilson, the Duke, the Boobengrabber, or Prop 13, I only have this to say...

ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES.

Gov. Brown is trying to fix what they, and the said proposition, did to this state. Most of the anti-tax legislation passed since Prop 13 is so ingrained that it will probably take at least one generation to extricate ourselves from it.

Want to blame somebody? Try the late, not so great Howard Jarvis.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. Brown was governor when prop 13 passed

And bears some responsibility for the current mess. His plan at the time was to have the state step in and way for local items. It worked until the state ran out of money. There is something ironic about him being govenor again and trying to take the solutions in a different direction.

[olddad56]

8. yeah he was, he was also opposed to prop 13,

the state had amassed a 5 Billion surplus under Brown and then he used most of the surplus to bail out the counties and cities after they were screwed by prop 13. So what is your point?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. That it is not just Prop !3

Blaming it all on Prop 13 is an easy meme for those not willing to understand the history. Like most sound bites, its quite flawed.

Brown is a pol, and changes directions whenever he feels the winds change. There was a defining moment on KABC when he capitulated to Jarvis on the run up to Prop 13. A true classic. Later called himself a born again tax cutter.

The new state financial structure was put in place by Brown at the time, but no one seriously reviewed it over the years to see if it was still viable. Today we have Brown screwing the local governments without notice to cover state bills. I see the irony in that, even if others do not.

[elzenmahn]

13. As you have likely seen from my previous post...

...in the first sentence, I wasn't putting all of the blame on Prop 13.

I also point to the policies of Petey (remember his little budget war stare-down with Willie Brown, which Petey ultimately lost), Dukey, and the Boobengrabber.

I would agree with you re: our human windsock governor. But he's only working with what is available to him now.

[grantcart]

7. In CA raising taxes in the legislature requires a super majority and the last time a couple of

Republicans crossed the aisle to pass it they were targeted by the Republican Party.

Brown is organizing a people's petition to place it on the ballot.

At this point he has no other options.

[Suji to Seoul]

12. People are idiots. Slash and burn works so well with the rain forest

let's use it in government!!!

[may3rd]

15. ... why don't they legalize weed and TAX it like cigarettes.

I think being dispensed at locations were weed is in 'high' demand will be a boon for Brown.

jusayn

[Suji to Seoul]

19. good idea. . .will never happen.

weed leads to the the devil's work. It's a drug. Drugs are bad, mmkay!

[annm4peace]

17. Tax the Oil

there are other solutions than cutting the pay of the State workers.

it is shameful. tax the 1% of CA and the oil .

[catchnrelease]

20. Yes!

Other states do, why not CA?

[Pessimistic Idealist]

18. We need to purge the Blue Dogs...

The same way the Ron Paul people are purging RINOs from their party.

[yurbud]

21. why didn't he put bigger tax increases on the 1% in that ballot measure?

Brown seems like a local version of DC Dems "the glass must always be half Republican" approach even though there is even less of an excuse to do it in California since we are an overwhelmingly blue state.

California has that 2/3 requirement for raising taxes, but the ballot is the way around that. Since that takes a fairly major effort, why not get more buck for the bang?