Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered state workers to take an additional furlough day. That means state employees must now take three unpaid days a month resulting in a pay cut of about 14 percent.
“34 years and I am about to make less money than when I started making 30 years ago,” state employee Christopher Julian said.
It's been about 30 years since Julian started his career with Cal-Trans. And he says he comes to work every day and does his job. Now he wants lawmakers in Sacramento to do the same and pass a budget.
“There are the ones not doing there jobs and the furlough days are messing us up. Because you have a family and you gotta try and feed them, but they don’t care about that at all,” Julian said.
Legislative Republicans, Democrats, and the governor missed this week’s deadline to strike a deal and close the state's $26 billion budget gap.
In response, the governor called for a special session so lawmakers can solve the budget mess and ordered state employees to take a third day off without pay.
“Personally, it will even be harder for us. It will make life more diffuclt,” DMV employee Eufrmia Europa said.
Eurpoa and other employees at the DMV on F Street say the first two furloughs were bad enough, but a third day means productivity will suffer and the lines will get longer.
“If think about it, if you take away three Fridays it will cause the lines to be longer.
But the governor says forcing about 200,000 employees to take three unwanted and unpaid long weeks will save California about $400 million.
