photo credit: pirate_renee

For the umpteenth time, the California State Legislature has failed to pass the state budget on July 1st as directed in the State Constitution. This time, Governor Schwarzenegger plans to lay off as many as 22,000 temporary, part-time and contract state workers, and reduce pay to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour, in a state with one of the highest costs of living in the nation. I happen to know several state workers, and this plan could prove devastating to them. Mortgage companies and credit card companies aren’t happy about late or missed payments, and this move could result in the damage of thousands of credit ratings.

I haven’t been able to determine whether these drastic cuts will apply to the Legislature or their employees, but somehow I doubt it.

Here’s what I don’t understand. In the real world, if you don’t do your job, you are usually fired. The job of the State Legislature is to pass the state budget by July 1st. We can’t fire them, because they would just be replaced with other politicians who would continue doing the same poor job. In my eyes, rather than hurting the working class, we should at the very least stop paying the Legislature until the budget is passed, WITHOUT reimbursing them later. I can guarantee that such an action would definitely motivate them to do their jobs.