State workers angry over pay-slashing plan

State workers reacted with a mixture of anger and skepticism Thursday to the possibility of their paychecks being slashed to minimum-wage levels if the budget stalemate persists in Sacramento.

"We always get the lousy end of the stick," said Jennifer Lewis, a tax technician at the state Board of Equalization in downtown Santa Rosa. "Why do we have to be the ones to take it in the shorts?"

Lewis said the fact that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has prepared an order potentially lowering most state workers' pay to $6.55 an hour is a sign of desperation.

"I don't think he knows what to do," she said.

Other state employees said it's a political ploy, so workers will pressure the Legislature to pass a budget. They doubt a minimum wage would be implemented.

"I don't think it has a chance," said Leanne Young, a worker at Santa Rosa's state building. "If I got paid the minimum wage, I couldn't afford to come to work."

Although she has a four-year college degree, "I would be out looking for a job waiting tables," she said. "It's ludicrous."

Under the governor's proposed executive order, 200,000 state workers would see their pay temporarily cut to the federal minimum wage, $6.55 an hour, to save cash until lawmakers reach a budget deal.

Schwarzenegger's order says his action complies with a 2003 California Supreme Court ruling that deemed federal labor laws require the state to pay most workers "either federal minimum wage or, for those employees that work overtime, their full salaries" when the state has no budget. The order would require state agencies to stop authorizing overtime for most employees.

The federal minimum wage is $1.45 per hour lower than California's minimum wage of $8. The governor believes the 2003 ruling allows the state to pay the federal minimum wage and meet its legal obligations by issuing back pay once the budget is signed.

Today is the 25th day of a state budget impasse brought on by a $15.2 billion shortfall. Republicans and Democrats are divided over how to close the gap.

Schwarzenegger's order would take effect for the August pay period and envisions state workers would get back pay in full after a budget is signed.

But state Controller John Chiang, who oversees the disbursement of state funds, has questioned the governor's authority and said he would disregard such an order.

Schwarzenegger's move would save about $1 billion a month, depending on how many employees are exempt under federal law because they work in the health and safety fields, according to to the governor's office.

Employees of the state Public Utilities Commission, University of California, California State University, community colleges and legislative and judicial branches are exempt because they are not under the governor's direct authority.

But other workers in a myriad of agencies, from the Department of Motor Vehicles to Employment Development Department and the Contractors License Board, apparently would be affected.

In Sonoma County, the biggest number of state employees -- about 1,000 -- work at the Sonoma Developmental Center near Glen Ellen, said union organizer Daniel Solnit of Service Employees International Union Local 1000.

He said some employees at the developmental center will participate in a protest there from noon to 1 p.m. Monday.

"We're being used as a political football," said Brian Bennett, a cook at the center, who said he hasn't seen such anger among his fellow employees for a long time.

"People are really (ticked) off," he said.

Bennett, a father of three children who makes about $18 an hour, commutes by bus from Santa Rosa to cut down on expenses. Add food and rent, he said, and he couldn't make ends meet on minimum wage.

"You have to have two jobs to survive," he said.

"I see almost half my check gone to pay for gas," said a fellow cook, Willene "Shorty" Hilton, who commutes from Pittsburg to the center.

If a minimum wage is implemented, she said, it would hardly be worth coming to work.

"It ain't no use me coming now. I won't be making enough to get here," she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214

or clark.mason@

pressdemocrat.com.