The State Worker blog reports that the Department of Personnel Administration is trying to keep SEIU Local 1000 from seeking contract arbitration over holiday and overtime changes voted into law early this year. The blog item includes a link to the DPA document.

The deadline to return your ballots for the CalPERS board runoff election between J.J. Jelincic and Cathy Hackett is Dec. 4. If you are having problems with your ballots, or didn't get one, call one of these hotline numbers: 916-795-3952 or 800-794-2297.

The State Worker column reports on three employees at the Victim Compensation & Government Claims Board who started an "Employees Helping Employees" program to accept donated gift cards to give to other staff members in need. The State Worker blog reports on the results of a swap meet for state workers held Nov. 14.

The State Worker columnist, Jon Ortiz, has posted videotapes of interviews he conducted with CalPERS board of administration candidates J.J. Jelincic and Kathy Hackett. Watch them here.

During this holiday season, ACSS offices will be closed on the following days: Nov. 26 and 27; Dec. 24, 25 and 31; and Jan. 1.

The human resources director for the State Compensation Insurance Fund issued a memo yesterday calculating that most SCIF employees who were furloughed will receive interest of between $50 and $100 each on their reimbursement pay. A judge ruled the SCIF furloughs violated insurance code. ACSS played the key role in making sure excluded employees were covered under the ruling.

A Sacramento Bee editorial calls for the Legislature to subject its own internal spending to the same sacrifices it has imposed on state workers and the state budget. Last year, the Legislature's budget rose by $9 million while the state's overall general fund spending declined by 7 percent.

Gov. Schwarzenegger said today on The Jay Leno show that he would appooint Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado to fill the vacant lieutenant governor position. Lt. Gov. John Garamendi resigned after winning a seat in Congress earlier this month. Maldonado, 42, of Santa Maria, provided key votes this year to get the budget passed, often over the objections of his party members. He has been lauded as being supportive of state workers. Read the article here with bio information on Maldonado. A transcript of the announcement is here.

Without many places left to cut, California will be scrambling to find another $20.7 billion to balance its budget over the next 19 months. A follow-up story to the Legislative Analyst's Office prediction of a continued huge deficit yesterday.

Attorney General Jerry Brown issued anopinion today supporting the salary-setting commission's move to cut legislators' salaries in mid-term. The opinion affects 20 senators. The commission voted in May to cut the salaries of legislators and statewide elected officials by 18 percent, but 20 senators claimed they would be be affected because they were in the middle of their terms.

The State Worker this morning runs down some of the consequences state workers could face as the state copes with a predicted $21 billion deficit. A sampling of possibilities: Real layoffs, no raises, a furlough extension.

State Worker columnist Jon Ortiz links to a new Bee interactive Web site that shows with charts and data the effects, or non-effects, of the state furlough. For example, wages have declined 5 percent and the state is still hiring. You're encouraged to have your say.

A Legislative Analyst's Office report issued this morning predicts the state will have a general fund budget shortfall of $20.7 billion by the time the Legislature enacts its 2010-11 budget. Part of the problem is a projected $6.3 billion deficit this year, the rest is a $14.4 billion gap between projected revenues and spending. State workers can expect no COLA or salary increases until at least 2015 (the report acknowledged the long wage freeze could have negative effects on departmental operations). The report also acknowledges, though isn't recommending, that "hundreds of millions of dollars" could be saved by extending the furloughs, increasing layoffs or cutting state workers' salaries. Read the LAO report here. Read Sacramento Bee coverage here.

SEIU reports that the judge presiding over the Alameda Superior Court furlough hearing "sharply questioned" the legal basis for furloughing more than 50,000 state workers and asked Gov. Schwarzenegger's legal team: "How can you have an emergency that's 17 months long?"

Lawyers for unions and some government agencies argued in Alameda Superior Court yesterday that the furlough policy is illegally harming the government and violating minimum wage laws and is irrational because it is applied even to state workers whose pay does not affect California's general fund. The arguments will continue.