Welcome to 2009.
Today, January 09 of 09 at about 3:30 PM an email appeared simultaneously in every email inbox of the 3,000 plus employees of the state government agency I am working at. Sort of like a "Greetings from Uncle Sam" feeling came over the office, and soon printers were humming as the attachment was printed: the official letter from the Department of Personnel Admin that everyone would be forced to take two days off without pay for the next 18 months, or more. Thats if you weren't being laid-off. Lets see, 20%=600 jobs for us. Those cut loose will be placed on a list called State Restriction of Appointment (SROA) and allowed to bump other employees less senior to them elsewhere. With employees in counties from the north to south, potentially a person in Eureka could bump someone in San Diego and move the 900 miles; the local media says in 2009 there will certainly be an uptick in foreclosures in this area, already one of the worse in the country...our state legislature is totally useless. Even the Legislative Analyst Office here has so much as said so in their latest report:
"The Governor’s budget framework makes a good faith effort to close a colossal budget gap. The Legislature, however, can improve the plan by making further use of the ballot, adopting more strategic programmatic reductions and revenue increases, and reducing the reliance on borrowing. There are no easy paths to solving the crisis. But it is urgent that the Legislature and Governor act immediately to address a budgetary and cash situation that has the state on the edge of fiscal disaster."
This is one trend that I hope California isnt the trend setter...
The government thinks it knows how to run other peoples businesses and strengthen the economy...but they can't deal with their own budgetary situations! (Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!)
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