The legislators gridlock has created a complete mess. Hospitals, nursing homes, and community health clinics are no long being paid. Schools are trying to plan a new school year without knowing how many staff they will be able to keep. This is irresponsible. It has to stop.
State workers making $6.55 an hour are not going to be spending and money in their communities and everyone is going to suffer. Haven’t we had enough foreclosures? At $6.55 an hour, how many state workers will lose their homes if a budget is not passed as soon as possible?
Most rank and file employees (like DMV workers) make between $2,500 and $3,000 a month and work very hard. Everyone thinks we are so overpaid—we aren’t! The cities and county workers make much more, and every year we settle for a measly 2 percent raise from the state.
Then, in January each year, they raise our portion of the health benefit cost and we lose our raise. Arnold is being a bully. What do we state workers have to do with passing a budget? If any of us had the power to pass a budget, we’d be right there passing it. But instead, we are being held hostage by Arnold. It’s time to pass a budget before a lot of innocent people get hurt!
This article appears in Aug 14-21, 2008.