Looks like the Governor is going to issue an Executive Order on Monday to reduce the pay of 200,000 state employees temporary down to the federal minimum wage. Once a state budget is approved, these folks will be issued back-pay for the difference. It’s all about preserving cash flow says this breaking story at the SacBee website.
This will jack up the anxiety of public employee unions who should think about this — they have very little cache with legislative Republicans since, for the most part, they work to defeat every Republican that they can. So the question is what kind of pressure can these unions bring to bear on legislative Democrats? Perhaps it’s time for the unions to roll up their sleeves and figure out how to give state government a healthy haircut — which will then allow for a budget to pass, and their members can once again get their full pay.