You note that “many workers for the California Government make much more than their counterparts in the private sector (where comparable jobs exist)” however this couldn’t be farther from the truth. In most of the non-skilled state jobs, those employees do enjoy a small increase in pay over their private sector counterparts, amounting to roughly 10%. It’s the semi skilled, skilled and professional level jobs where the general public salary gains parity and most time exceeds what state employees earn. For instance, the Chief Physician and Surgeon of a correctional facility makes 256000 per year. A resident Physician at most major hospitals makes upwards of $400000. This can be confirmed with a quick visit to the California SPB website. I found, by talking to other people employed by the state of California, that one of the major factors in pursuing and obtaining state employment was job security. People felt safe with the knowledge that the likelihood of termination was remote provided you were tenured. However within the last 10 years that reason has been losing it’s standing with IOU’s issued by the state, poor contract negotiations and now furloughs and potential layoffs.

As a state employee myself, taking a 9% net cut in pay will amount to NO discretionary spending for me or my family. In fact, I’ll have to change tax exemptions withholdings just to ensure I don’t go in the “red” myself. Further, since this state worker furlough is only part of large stimulus package to include increased and newly generated sales taxes as well as decreased state services, I have to endure the cost of these programs too.

I understand the precarious situation we are in, however putting a large bulk of the burden on state employee shoulders is not the way to solve it. If decreased state services and increased taxes are to be used in concert with better fiscal management to solve this problem, then the burden should be spread equitably among the entire population of California, not just its workers.