A proposal to give unionized California state workers first dibs on government work and make it tougher to discipline them has taken heavy fire from newspaper editorial boards all the way from Redding to San Diego.
Assembly Bill 1655, by Democratic Assemblyman Roger Dickinson of Sacramento, would guarantee state workers a crack at jobs before the state could contract out the work.
It would also shorten from three years to one year how long employers have to discipline employees for fraud and other workplace crimes, and would ban "extra work" created by vacancies, furloughs or layoffs without "fair compensation."
Dickinson's office has said the union-backed bill, introduced Feb. 13, extends protections that cops, firefighters and nonunion state workers already get.
The reaction to the proposal?
"Excessive" and so outrageous that it "might be mistaken for satire," said the Orange County Register. "Tone-deaf," pronounced the San Diego Union-Tribune. "This bill would protect the jobs of frauds and embezzlers," opined the Redding Record Searchlight.
Sacramento-based Republican political strategist Mitch Zak said that most employees probably aren't happy either.
"It's a ludicrous bill," he said. "But besides that, it doesn't reflect the commitment, professionalism and willingness to serve of so many state workers."
BILL WATCH
State sales taxes would drop for cellphone buyers under a proposal now before the Legislature. Senate Bill 1086 by Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, would ensure that customers buying a discounted phone bundled with a plan would pay tax on the purchase price, not the higher retail value. Similar attempts to change the tax have been unsuccessful.
>WORTH REPEATING
"Here's hoping the governor has more success than we did in taking on the status quo."
AARON McLEAR, spokesman for California Pension Reform, which scrapped its ballot drive to overhaul public pensions earlier this month
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