Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Another Reason California Will Never Be Rid Of Our Budget Albatross

Oooh boy! This is so rich and so freeking unbelivable. But if this was not California, well let me continue.
Gov. Jerry Brown got most of his support from labor unions. Majority are government employee unions.
And what do you know?
A payoff to one of the strongest supporters, the the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., the prison guards union, spent nearly $2 million to help him win election last year has been made.
Now, the CCPOA, has a provision that includes, get this, can save their unused vacation time. And they will be able to cash out at the final salary. And they will in their first year of employement have up to eight weeks-thats two months-off in a year.
Now, one wonders what this will potentially cost the taxpayers of California?
Well, according to Nick Schroder of the state's non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office the average officer accumalated 19 weeks of time off. Nineteen freeking weeks! And the current cost of that is about $600,000,000 dollars.
So, we wonder why there is a problem solving the current budget mess. This is one of the reasons.
The excuse being made for this caving-in is that the prison guards have been working without a contract since 2006. Seems like that has not been all that bad. And it is not just this lump-sum payout but the fact that these guards will retire with a pension on top of this.
I do get that this is a tough job. But it is ridiculous to pay these guards money that we do not have. And to payoff like this, potentially 30,000 people, is reckless when the state can not balance its budget.
Gov. Brown will have to explain why we should raise taxes to pay off such employees when so many lower-level workers and private-sector workers are taking it on the chin.
Again, one wonders why California will not balance it's budget. This is but one glaring reason why.

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