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.

It's not too soon to make your reservations to attend the ACSS board meeting, Jan. 15-17 at the Embassy Suites SF Airport Burlingame. Reservation deadline is Dec. 23. Call the hotel directly at 650-342-4600 (be sure to say you're with ACSS or use the online code V-ACSS). For more information, click 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.

While stopping short of endorsing the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsbility pension reform proposals, a Sacramento Bee editorial today takes a point of view that some reform is needed in the way CalPERS pensions are calculated. "We are facing decades … of unsustainable pensions costs," it says.

Capitol Weekly newspaper discusses the proposed public pension issue reform initiative and the background and some consequences. One report says teachers retiring at 62 could have their pensions cut in half under the proposed plan.

Sacramento Bee political columnist Dan Walters offers his frame for the public pension issue in this morning's piece. CalPERS, he says, "Is in deep financial doo-doo." Payments for CalPERS placement agents are being investigated, and an intiative has been filed to reduce PERS benefits for future public employees. "It's high time for the Legislature to conduct … a review," Walters says.

With a new investment in up-to-the-minute equipment, the CSEA Print Shop has expanded its services to the public and changed its name to Alliance Print & Design. The new name should help the print shop market its commercial printing services to more outside customers. The shop recently acquired a five-color offset press and high-speed digital copier. Alliance's phone number is 916-326-4396.

The Sacramento Bee sets out the primary changes contained in the new measure to reduce public employees' pensions. The California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility says it will cost $2 million to gather enough signatures to qualify the measure for the November 2010 ballot. The changes would affect only new hires. Dave Lowe, chairman of Californians for Health Care and Retirement Security, says the issue isn't a high priority with voters and predicts such a measure would fail.

Today is the last day as a state employee for ACSS Secretary-Treasurer Terry Sutherland. After 43 years working for the state of California, he begins his retirement Monday and, therefore, will no longer be a member of ACSS. He won't be inactive in state causes, though: The CSEA Retirees Inc. has already recruited him. Longtime ACSS member Elena Yuasa, of Chapter 513, begins her tenure as secretary-treasurer Monday. We wish the best for Terry and welcome Elena.

The California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility has refiled proposed ballot measures to create a second-tier pension system for California public employees. Relentless pension fighter Paul McCauley has vowed to refile his measure to tax public pensions after it failed to qualify for the ballot this week. Today's Sacramento Bee State Worker blog contains full information on the initiatives.

Attorney General Jerry Brown has been asked to decide whether pending 18 percent pay cuts for lawmakers were legally approved by the California Citizens Compensation Commission. The Legislature's top administrators suggest the reductions were beyond the jurisdiction of the commission.

State Worker blogger Jon Ortiz posed an interesting question among yesterday's items: If you're a state worker and you're killing yourself to get your work done, are you enabling bad government? Or are you exercising a laudable work ethic? Any thoughts?

Now that the furloughs have been in place for a few months, The State Worker column ponders whether the public really notices the state's reduced work schedule. The public may not be convinced the furlough is hurting anyone but state workers.

At the urging of former ACSS member Jim McRitchie, Sacramento public radio's talk show host Jeffrey Callison will interview CalPERS candidates J.J. Jelincic and Cathy Hackett Nov. 16. Callison's show, "Insight," airs from 10 to 11 a.m. and can be heard on public radio stations in Sacramento, Stockton/Modesto, Tahoe and Quincy. Listeners elsewhere can get the live stream at wwwcapradio.org/insight. Jelincic and Hackett face a runoff election. Ballots will be mailed Nov. 9 and are due back Dec. 4.

California has the most polarized state Legislature in the country. According to a Sacramento Bee analysis, Democrats in the California Legislature voted with their party or abstained 99 percent of the time; Republicans voted with their party or abstained 96 percent of the time. Sen Abel Maldonado, a Republican from Santa Maria, has one of the best bipartisan records: He voted against his party 237 times, about 40 percent.

Today's the day your state tax withholding amounts increase. Beginning today, your employer is required to withhold 10 percent more state tax from your pay checks. This increase comes on top of a 0.25 percent state income tax increase and a decrease in the dependent credit. All three were enacted in this year's budget. The withholding move doesn't mean you owe more state taxes. It's a way of bringing revenue into the state more quickly. You'll get what you overpay in your refund (or owe less) when you file your returns each year.

Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley has tentative ruled not to allow furlough lawsuits to be coordinated and transferred to Sacramento. Final ruling is expected later today. Tentative rulings are rarely changed.

An ACSS member has asked us if ACSS is pursuing grievances related to the loss of Columbus Day and Lincoln’s birthday as holidays, as SEIU Local 1000 is doing. ACSS President Arlene Espinoza responded directly to this member. Click on the headline above to read her full response:

The Sacramento News & Review this week interviews state workers (a large percentage of our working population here) about the impacts of Furlough Fridays on their lives and budgets. Amid the severe minuses are a few pluses. ACSS would like to know your reaction to the furloughs: How have you handled the pay cut? How do you spend your days off? Is there a silver lining? Please email your comments to Lholderness@calcsea.org. We will publish all we can.

Reaping again from The State Worker blog: Debate will begin in Sacramento Superior Court Friday on whether furlough lawsuits filed in other counties should be transferred to Sacramento.

From the State Worker blog: The state worker clothing swap meet, which was postponed last week, is now rescheduled for a new date and place. The details: Nov. 14, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at New Life Preschool, 10190 Systems Parkway, Sacramento. (Systems Parkway is east of Bradshaw Road off Highway 50; the blog links to a map.) Donations can be dropped off until Nov. 12 at the following locations: 1515 S St., Room 104 North; 10000 Goethe Road, Suite C1C; and 1900 Alabama Ave. (ask for Cecily Brown in the master data unit).

The governor didn't give the order to buy fleets of vehicles that then stood idle; a state purchasing agent was responsible. The State Worker column today offers insight into how this mistake happened - and it reminds state workers of the power they have to blow the whistle on abuses they see.

Kathleen Webb, a Department of General Services deputy director who oversaw the state's vehicle fleet, resigned and a Caltrans employee was reassigned in the wake of a Sacramento Bee investigation that found $5.5 million had been spent on Caltrans vehicles that were left idle.

Gov. Schwarzenegger has written a letter to congressional leaders urging them to pass a health care measure that would require everyone to carry health insurance but reiterating concern that the proposals must be affordable to the states. Mandatory Medicaid expansion could impose $1 billion a year in additional costs to California, the governor wrote.

Two state departments spent more than $5.5 million on new vehicles this year only to leave them idle and gathering dust. A Sacramento Bee editorial points out that "the state's fiscal house of cards was collapsing but the state's purchasing agents were conducting 'business as usual.'" And that, the piece concludes, is part of the reason "California remains mired in a financial mess."

The Department of Personnel Administration is training its best and brightest state workers to take over top jobs as supervisors and managers become eligible to retire in large numbers. The department's "Leadership Academy" offers graduate-level courses in Sacramento. The students must interview and apply to take them.

In June, CalPERS announced it had added a new "CalPERS responds" section to its Web site. Now, the pension fund has expanded this resource to its own Web site, calpersresponds.com. The new format, the press release says, will make the information more easily accessible.

The State Worker blog today reports this morning that the Franchise Tax Board will be closing one hour early -- at 4 p.m -- beginning Nov. 1. Reason? "Budget constraints." The blog also gives the back and forth of the SCIF bonus, which was stopped by DPA.

From calpensions.com: State Treasurer Bill Lockyer warned California at a legislative hearing that the state will go bankrupt if the pension system isn't reformed. He also said he didn't have a solution to the pension problem "other than constructive dialogue."

From Capitol Weekly: State worker pensions continue to come under attack: A group of Orange County politicos has filed two proposed ballot initiatives to bar unions from deducting money from members' paychecks for political purposes and require unions to get written permission before deducting money for political activity. Two similar initiatives were rejected in the past. A third initiative by the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility would lower pension benefits, increase retirement age and establish a statewide pension rate.

A chart-style breakdown of the various furlough lawsuit issues and arguments.

Utah's four-day workweek, which compacted 40 hours into four days and did not include furloughs. saved the state $4.8 million in the first year. The goal was to save money by reducing the energy used, but while energy savings aren't as high as expected, other savings were higher.

The State Worker: "It's never a good sign when the court bench becomes labor's focus instead of the bargaining table." State unions' best ally, President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, couldn't even get the three-day furlough reduced to two.

Be prepared for (yet another) temporary reduction in your income beginning Nov. 1. Under a new state law, AB 17, your state tax withholding will increase by 10 percent starting with wages earned this month. For example, if your employer has been deducting $500 in state taxes, that amount will increase to $550. The law was passed to improve the state's cash flow in the short term. Note: Your taxes do not increase; if you're entitled, you will receive the additional withholding back as part of your income tax refund next year. Employers are required to deduct taxes at the rate specified on the new state tax tables.

The State Worker blog reports on several state worker-related legal issues this morning: The state's constitutional officers filed their opening brief in their suit to keep their employees from being furloughed; the California Association of Professional Scientists filed a lawsuit over the governor's holiday changes; the attorney general filed a lawsuit against a bank for "fraud" against CalPERS and CalSTRS. the Social Security Administration has filed a statement in Alameda Superior Court saying the state's furloughs hamper their obligations under the Social Security Act.

A report by the Bureau of State Audits has found that some state employees, particularly in the departments of Mental Health and Developmental Services, are earning "significant" overtime, in some cases more than doubling their pay and in one case totaling more than $700,000.

AB 376, which would shield businesses from discrimination lawsuits for offering discounts to furloughed or laid off workers, has passed the state Senate and is awaiting the governor's decision. Gov. Schwarzenegger has 12 days to sign or veto the bill.