Sun Star Has Ideas About Furloughs

In an opinion piece the Sun Star weighs in with a furlough (forced or contracted non paid time off). If furloughs have to be considered.. and certainly not unless required, the following philosophy makes sense. This was published today in our local paper,, The Merced Sun Star.


UC's plan eases pain of furloughs

Multiple-tiered system ought to be used in other branches of state government.

California's gargantuan $26 billion budget deficit means that even its most vulnerable state workers must share in the pain.

But even in these extraordinary times, the red ink shouldn't forestall creative action.

At the University of California, President Mark Yudof has proposed a tiered system of furloughs for employees, based on their level of pay. It's an approach that other branches of state government should seriously consider.

Under the plan, the lowest-paid of the plan's seven categories of workers -- those making up to $40,000 a year -- would take 11 annual furlough days, equivalent to 4 percent of their salary.

Midlevel workers, who make between $60,000 and $90,000, would take 18 days, equal to 7 percent of their salaries.

The best-compensated workers, those who pull down more than $240,000, would have to take 26 unpaid days off a year, the equivalent of 10 percent of their salaries.

Contrast that with the state's approach toward most other state workers. To cut spending, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered them to take three furlough days a month, the equivalent of 14 percent of their pay.

He's pushing for an additional 5 percent reduction. State workers at the bottom of the pay scale would take the same percentage cut as those at the top.

Anyone receiving a state paycheck suffers under these cuts. But they will devastate the lowest-paid workers -- people who are already struggling to pay rent, mortgages and other bills.

Lack of imagination is one reason that no other part of government -- with the exception of the Legislature -- has taken the same course as UC.

Leaders of the California State University system have given all its employees the same choice, regardless of salary: 24 annual furlough days, which is a little less than 10 percent of their pay, or layoffs whose numbers are unspecified but are presumed to be harsh.

In addition, most state agencies must cut salaries by the 14 percent the governor has ordered, which is more than UC (or CSU). Spreading the salary-cut pain is harder when there's more pain to pass around.

But it's not impossible, as UC, whose regents are expected to approve the plan today, has demonstrated. The Legislature and even the governor claim to be troubled by the pain that state worker furloughs will cause. This could be a chance to make a little of that pain go away.