Photo by Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer this morning criticized Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to cut state worker pay via executive order on Thursday. He listed four reasons that the plan is a bad idea:
Legal challenges: "Since most of collective bargaining agreements have expired, it's arguably an unfair labor practice," Lockyer said. Like Controller John Chiang, Lockyer believes that lawsuits will follow the executive order. In such cases, courts often award three times the actual amount of money lost, the so-called "treble damages" penalty for willful conduct.
Logistical challenges: The state's payroll system is "archaic" and, Lockyer estimates, that it could take up to three months simply to make the computations to adjust tens of thousands of individual pay checks to the federal minimum $6.55 per hour. He also figures that employees would have to be paid interest on the difference once a budget is passed, adding another layer of administrative headache.
Bad management: Cutting pay would hurt state workers' morale. Other state officials like J. Clark Kelso, the federal reciever who is trying to turn around the state's prisons, recognize that just the threat is enough to demoralize public employees, so he sent off this e-mail to his staff.
No political punch: Schwarzenegger is trying to send a message to deadlocked legislators, but "I don't think (a state worker pay cut) has any impact on the budget negotiations whatsoever," Lockyer said.
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