Judge Patrick Marlette in Sacramento denied Schwarzeneggers request for an injunction to compell Controller John Chiang to pay California State workers minimum wage. From the SacBee
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Judge orders halt to Special Fund Agency furloughs
From the SacBee
An Alameda County judge today ordered back pay for tens of thousands of state workers he has said were illegally furloughed because they work in departments funded outside the general fund.
Judge Frank Roesch ordered the state to “immediately pay all employees of respondent departments and agencies their full salary without any reductions … and cease and desist the furlough of such employees.”
It does not say whether or not he will lift the stay that normally goes along with an appeal.
Oregon Voters Approve Raising Taxes on Rich and Corporations
Oregon Voters appeared to have approved initiatives that would raise taxes on high income earners and Corporations. You would think that this would be big news here for Californians weary of all-cuts solutions to the State’s chronic budget problems. A quick look at the major news outlets (Chron, Sac Bee, La Times) reveals a grand total of …ZERO stories. Hmmm..Do you think that maybe they are not so thrilled about the idea of higher taxes on high incomes and corporations?
Arnie just got his ass handed to him
Alameda superior court Judge Frank Roesch ruled against the Governor in the lawsuit challenging the furlough of State employees employed by special fund agencies.
In a ruling handed down late Thursday, Judge Frank Roesch said the governor’s reliance on provisions of the state’s Emergency Services Act to order mandatory furloughs was flawed and illegal, saying “the emergency necessitating them was the failure of the Legislature to pass the budgets” yet the administration continued the furloughs even after the budgets were passed.
Roesch also said that the furlough plan has “interfered with the objectives of agencies” whose activities were funded with special funds, not general fund revenues, including the processing of Social Security disability reviews.
Social Security Administrator Tells Governors to exempt Disability Adjudicators from furloughs
Social Security Administrator Michael J Astrue has requested that governors exempt disability determination employees from hiring restrictions and furloughs. In a Press Release the Commissioner expressed “grave concern” over the furlough of employees whose salaries and overhead are paid entirely by Social Security.
In addition, States are prohibited from using the money for anything else.
Social Security funds 100 percent of DDS employees’ salaries as well as overhead — about $2 billion nationwide this year. These funds cannot be used by the states for any other purpose, so states do not save money by cutting employees in DDSs – they only slow getting benefits to the disabled. Nevertheless, many governors are imposing across-the-board hiring freezes or furloughs that also affect DDS employees.
This is another example of Arnie cutting off our nose to spite his face. There are several thousand employees of the Disability Determination Service Division of the California Department of Social Services. The caseload of the Disability Determination Service traditionally skyrockets during financial downturns as marginally employed and otherwise disabled workers are dropped from payrolls. This is federal money that could flow into the state, but will now be slowed by the Arnies policies.