Furloughs cost state $350 million

Feinstein criticizes gov’s furloughs

Updated August 31, 2009
Local 1000 has made progress and gained an ally last week in our fight to stop Gov. Schwarzenegger’s unilateral unpaid furloughs.

Last Friday, Local 1000 filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court accusing the governor of violating the state’s Emergency Services Act by illegally using that law as a basis for implementing furloughs.

On Aug. 25, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked the governor to stop furloughing 1,415 employees who review Social Security disability applications because they are paid through federal money – not from the General Fund.

Also on Aug. 25, the state’s Department of Finance admitted at a state Senate hearing that furloughs at the Franchise Tax Board and Board of Equalization will cost the state $350 million in uncollected taxes.

Renee Lee, a tax technician at FTB, testified that she is now losing her Sacramento home because of the 14 percent pay cut from furloughs.

"I was living the American dream," said Lee, in a comment that widely picked up by media outlets. "I'm living a nightmare now.”

Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, who chaired the hearing blasted the Department of Finance miscalculating the amount of money lost through furloughs, saying: “I don’t believe the third furlough day is creating the savings Finance has said. Their projections are not credible.”

Read some of the media coverage of the furlough hearing in the Sacramento Bee and Capitol Weekly.