-By Warner Todd Huston
California has been ground zero in the war between over paid state employees unions and government budgetary concerns and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has leveled yet another salvo in that battle by again ordering more furloughs for state workers.
After ending the previous program to furlough 200,000 state workers the Governor has introduced a scaled back plan after the state controller reported that state accounts would be in the red by October.
Unlike the last time, Schwarzenegger’s newest attempt is open ended and will end “when lawmakers pass a 2010-11 budget.” There are other differences in this scaled back plan including thousands of new employee exemptions.
No word yet if the unions will launch another wave of lawsuits over this newest furlough plan. But if past performance is any indication they will.
This furlough idea is one of the quickest means to lower the budget for a state and many other states have followed the practice. But if union attacks against the idea are successful, that avenue for cutting the budget if only temporarily will be lost to lawmakers struggling to end the overspending.
Unions are a chief impediment to solving the various state’s budget crisis. This is another case that will have to be watched carefully.
____________
“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDailyReview.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.
They should all be furloughed indefinitely & recalled as they are needed. This would reduce the work-force to essential personal only. This should also be implemented for all federal agencies, contractors etc. And similarly applied for welfare & other public ‘assistance’ programs. Proof of need rather than their ‘word’ must be available & verified.
Any legal action should be tabled until the Supreme Court verifies the constitutionality of redistribution of wealth. Case law may not be used for this either – that was invented by liberals & only supports commie practices.
Obviously this is an over-simplification, but the premise is valid.