The gloves are off between John Chiang and the Governor.  Today, Arnold filed for an injunction requiring Chiang to not issue the full paychecks to state workers:

The Schwarzenegger administration submitted a court petition Tuesday in Sacramento County Superior Court seeking an injunction to force state Controller John Chiang to slash the wages of roughly 200,000 state workers.

Schwarzenegger has ordered the wages of state employees cut to $7.25 an hour until a budget is signed. A state appeals court agreed that the governor had the authority to do so last week, but Chiang, a Democrat, has continued to fight the directive. (LA Times)

Chiang has been fighting this for a number of years now, but the Supreme Court has yet to way in decisively one way or the other. Chiang has been arguing for years that unless the computer system is upgraded the pay cut will wreak havoc upon the payroll system.

In the end, the cut simply isn’t necessary. It’s just Arnold playing games with the state’s workforce.  But, it seems anything goes with state workers these days. Name a method of attack, and it’s pretty much a lock that some Republican (or Democrat/Green) will try it.