Here's a message from angry and anxious state workers to California's elected officials: Lead by example.
Before you furlough employees, ax jobs, pare back holidays, change overtime accounting rules or hand down any other mandates that cost your civil servants, make some sacrifices yourself.
"I understand that the state has money trouble. I'm willing to cut back," state office assistant Lynne Larsen said. "But everyone should cut back, including legislators."
Two weeks ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – who takes just $1 per year in salary – proposed several ways to trim employee costs. None was more explosive than his plan to furlough state workers one day each month to save $283 million this fiscal year.
That's about 2.5 percent of the $11.3 billion gap the state needs to close for 2008-09. The furloughs would reduce the wages of state workers by about 5 percent.
Larsen, whose $30,000 annual salary is about half the state's average wage per employee, said her take-home pay would drop $100 per month.
"I know that's just a nice dinner and a high-end cigar for the folks under the dome, but for me it's a week's worth of food and gas," Larsen said in a telephone interview. "It's a lot of money."
An independent commission sets the pay for California's 120 legislators, currently at $116,208 per year. On top of that, nearly all lawmakers take the equivalent of Larsen's yearly wages in tax-free per diem money.
A 5 percent slice to legislative pay and per diem wouldn't even break $1 million.
You could argue that the savings would be so trivial that it's not worth talking about. And some lawmakers have said they oppose the governor's proposals, so why cut their own pay?
But image counts, especially in a crisis. Even dysfunctional Wall Street has figured that out.
Earlier this week, seven executives at Goldman Sachs Group opted not to take tens of millions of dollars in bonuses they could have claimed. The decision has created pressure for executives at other firms to do the same.
See, when you're at the top of an organization on the financial rocks, you can't tell the people below you to take a hit while you remain personally untouched. At best it smacks of insensitivity and, at worst, hypocrisy.
We've heard from hundreds of state workers in the last few weeks. Like Larsen, some are willing to make sacrifices – but they're looking for legislators to go first.
Legislative pay is a touchy subject, as Sen. Abel Maldonado found out in May when his colleagues killed his plan to ban pay raises in lean years. As debate over the idea heated up, a fellow Republican implied Maldonado was "looking for a headline."
State workers would welcome reading some headlines like that, especially now.
A 5 percent legislative haircut would be about $7,300 for the year. A letter to the state controller and it's done. No debate. No committee.
"I would have a little more respect for anyone who did that," Larsen said. "But I'm not holding my breath."
Call The Bee's Jon Ortiz, (916) 321-1043. Read his blog, The State Worker, at sacbee.com/blogs.
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