Today's preliminary rundown

CTNS PRELIMINARY RUNDOWN

CAPITOL TELEVISION NEWS SERVICE

SACRAMENTO, CA

OFFICE: (916) 446-7890

FAX: (916) 446-7893

Thursday, July 24th , 2008

• TO REQUEST 16 BY 9 FILES OF THE CTNS NEWSFEED ONLINE PLEASE CONTACT ROB GRIFFITH. THE CTNS PRELIM, MIDDAY AND SCRIPTS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE WEB AT WWW.CTNSNEWS.COM .•

(EDITOR'S NOTE: FOR QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, AND/OR REQUESTS, PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO CALL ROB GRIFFITH: 916-446-7890 / 916-600-8614).

1. State Employee Pay Cut VO/SOT

On Monday, Governor Schwarzenegger will reportedly issue an Executive Order temporarily cutting pay for 200,000 state employees to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour. The cut is intended to reduce the state's day-to-day financial liability until the state budget stalemate is resolved. Once the new budget is signed, employees will return to their actual wages and be paid the difference between the actual salaries and the reduced wage. Efforting soundbites and video.

State Constitutional Crisis? VO/SOT

State Controller Jon Chiang has indicated we will not follow the Governor's Executive Order if issued, and will continue to issue paychecks to state employees at full salary. Both the Governor and Controller are directly voted into office, setting up a potential court battle over who has ultimate state spending authority. Efforting soundbites and video.

3. Sea Otter Tax Write-Off VO/SOT

For each of the past two years, state taxpayers have collectively donated more than 250-thousand dollars to protect Sea Otter populations via the voluntary check off on their tax returns. That level of donations means the Sea Otter check off is eligible to remain on state tax return forms. Efforting soundbites and video.

--ITEMS BELOW FYI ONLY NO VIDEO--

GOVERNOR'S SCHEDULE

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Sacramento. He has no public events scheduled.

LEGISLATURE'S SCHEDULE

The state budget is now 24 days overdue, but there are no legislative sessions scheduled for the Senate or Assembly to resolve the budget stalemate. All members of both houses are on call, meaning a session could be convened on 24 hours notice should a budget deal be struck.

--END CTNS PRELIMINARY RUNDOWN--