Southern California Public Radio listeners were treated to a bit of political theater yesterday, as State Controller John Chiang and Schwarzenegger Press Secretary Aaron McLear (I grabbed McLear’s Twitter avatar so you can see him in action) 
discussed the (unfortunate but necessary) possibility of paying state workers minimum wage next month unless the Legislature gets around to passing a budget.
Chiang is an elected Democrat (read: union tool) who has in the past rather defiantly refused to pay workers minimum wage, even though a 2003 Supreme Court ruling (White vs. Davis) says that is exactly what he must do when the state is running without a budget.
In yesterday’s interview Chiang, who has unsuccessfully tried to appeal the ruling before, said that his office is unable to comply with the law because of their supposedly outdated computer system. McLear rightly called Chiang on this rather lame excuse, and said that he certainly should have been able to remedy this problem over the past four years of his tenure. “I think four years in office is enough time to have brought your system up to a place where it complies with the law,” said McLear.
Even the show’s host called Chiang out on his excuse, asking him “Why is it that the computers haven’t been updated? We’re in the home of Silicon Valley…”
A flustered Chiang then tried to blame the Governor’s Office for the computer problem, a tactic that McLear was not about to fall for, saying “Controller, if there’s anything we can do to help you do your job we’re happy to help do that.”
You can listen to Chiang and McLear’s interview here. It starts at the 13:55 mark, and the real fireworks happen from 16:30 – 19:15.
Good job, Aaron.
Things got even better this morning when the San Diego Union-Tribune in their FR Golden Pen winning piece King Chiang noted that a 2003 Sacramento Bee article about this very issue (“Westly warns of pain if deadline is missed”) reported that then-Controller Steve Westly said his office COULD pay state workers minimum wage following the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“… Westly said he is limited by a recent California Supreme Court ruling that dictates most state workers be paid the federal minimum wage – $5.15 per hour – when the state is running without a budget. The high court ruled that the state must repay workers’ lost wages once a budget is signed. …
… But on Wednesday, Westly said that technical tasks involving changing pay for more than 200,000 employees can be accomplished.”
So let me get this straight Controller Chiang: your office’s computers were able to handle this seven years ago, but not today?