Gov. Schwarzenegger has only had to furlough California workers, not terminate them. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been cleared to furlough California state workers. The governor has had little help in easing a California budget crisis for years. The state of California has had chronic budget shortfalls for the past several years. Schwarzenegger had to resort to a furlough of state workers, but was sued to keep him from doing so. The California Supreme Court has upheld his power to enact a state furlough.

Court upholds furlough order

Governor Schwarzenegger was forced to furlough California state employees in order to save money. The workers would work two fewer days per month, without pay. The initial furloughs were ordered in 2008, and extended to three days in 2009. When the state furlough orders were renewed in 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was sued by the Professional Engineers in California Government. The claim was that the days off were illegal. The California Supreme Court, according CNN, ruled in favor of the government. The furloughs will save the state of California $80 million per month.

Golden state running out of gold

The state of California has had a running budget crisis for the past several years. As real estate values and employment plummeted, the state was left with a drastic budget deficit. A California budget deficit has been an annual fixture. Governor Schwarzenegger has been opposed at every turn by legislators and other parties. He has maintained that he is not in favor of the furloughs, but is forced to resort to a state furlough of workers in order to reduce the deficit. The California budget deficit stands at $19.1 billion for this year, according to Bloomberg.

Less revenue equals less to spend

The state of California has been in perpetual crisis mode for the past two years. The governor and the state legislature are supposed to reach an agreement over the budget later this month.The legislature was in favor of the furloughs.

Sources

Bloomberg

CNN

Roxanne, you don't have turn on the red ATM light or I'll be back… (Photo: Sloshspot)

California is in the middle of a titanic budget crisis, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken it upon himself to pummel any source of wasted funds into submission – including strip club ATMs. The Los Angeles Times reports that more than $12,000 designated for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which is intended for welfare purposes, was withdrawn at various strip clubs across the state from 2007 to 2009. Among the strip clubs noted by name in this ongoing investigation are Sam’s Hofbrau, Seventh Veil and Star Strip, according to the California Department of Social Services.

Strip club welfare ATMs: When you need adult entertainment

The prospect of strip club ATMs being used in a less-than-responsible way by patrons with families to feed and clothe has prompted Schwarzenegger to terminate strip club locations from the list of approved locations where welfare recipients can withdraw emergency money. According to the Times, more than half of casinos and state-licensed poker rooms in California permit welfare recipients to access their quick TANF payday. Department of Social Services spokeswoman Lizelda Lopez said that “common sense” will be used to re-evaluate where emergency welfare cash advance funds should or should not be withdrawn.

Strip club managers ‘shocked,’ were unaware of ATM usage

Strip club managers who were willing to submit to interviews claim that they had no way of knowing that the strip club ATMs were welfare approved. The third-party machines were provided via a California state contract with the Quest ATM network, although as Star Strip manager Joey Mancini put it, no Quest sticker indicating welfare emergency money status was affixed to his strip club’s ATM. Nevertheless, Mancini insists that California officials “must be wrong” about the $1,265 in TANF emergency cash advance funds taken from his machine.

Smile when you say that, Mr. Mancini. Gov. Schwarzenegger is watching.

Sources:

Los Angeles Times

To save or not to save, that is the question…

Image from zincplatepressblog.files.wordpress.com.

California’s budget crisis may seem like an overwhelming lost cause to some, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is putting up a fight. His latest plan to get some emergency money to fight the state deficit is the Great California Garage Sale.

The state is now using online resources including Craigslist and eBay to advertise items for sale at the Great California Garage Sale, which takes place this weekend at the surplus property warehouse. Items for sale include a huge collection of unclaimed and confiscated items.

It’s all about the marketing

Items that become property of the state after being confiscated are always for sale, but the difference for the Great California Garage sale is promotion. The items are for sale on familiar, commonly used sites that everyone knows about and knows how to use. Buyers will be able to pick up their items at the Great California Garage Sale this weekend at designated booths.

The process of buying state property through police auctions is a daunting idea for most people without experience with them. But Craigslist and eBay are comfortable for most people to use. The other key to making the Great California Garage Sale a hit is publicity. Advertising is key in the success of any event, so Schwarzenegger is hoping that turning the Great California Garage Sale into a well-publicized event rather than  just another police property auction will get attention and make money.

Using social networking

The Great California Garage Sale is being promoted using social networking media, so it seems appropriate that the idea for it was actually submitted to the California state government through Twitter. The government created a web site called MyIdea4CA.com, which indexes tweets submitted on how to combat the state’s budget problems.

One person suggested that he should autograph some state-owned cars and bicycles for sale, and that’s just what he’s going to do at the Great California Garage Sale. Of course, there will be plenty of other items for sale, too. You can view photos and a list of everything available at the Department of General Services web site.  The list includes items such as jewelry, surfboard, racing bike and an antique piano.

Ideas for California

This web site for ideas to submit to the State of California sounds kind of cool. GovTech.com writes:

Myidea4ca.com scoops up tweets tagged with #myidea4ca, and people can then give a thumbs up or thumbs down to each idea — a function that’s commonplace on social bookmarking Web sites like Digg and Delicious. Users also can submit comments about the ideas, which are searchable by keyword, Twitter username, category, most popular, most commented and most recent.

Leave it to California to stay ahead of the curve — or at least with it, depending on how you look at it.

A Twitter fan favorite for California

GovTech also says that legalizing and taxing the sale of marijuana is the most popular idea on the site. This is not surprising, but it’s also not something that will happen this decade. However, the Great California Garage Sale is practical, doable and realistically could be successful.