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.

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:

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.

Director-at-Large Frank Ruffino sends this photo of ACSS executive officers speaking with Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown at the Democratic Grassroots Convention in San Diego in September. Members with Brown are Carlos Chavez, Elnora Fretwell, Olin King and Ruffino. As keynote speaker, Brown said the time for one-time fixes has passed. The e-board members also met several legislative candidates.

The Department of Personnel Administration has published its official list of holidays for excluded employees. Excluded employees are entitled to 11 holidays plus one personal holiday.

Of interest to state workers will be CalPERS' new Web site, calpersresponds.com, which sorts facts from myths on three hot topics: the pension fund's investments, state workers' pension security, and national health care reform.

The general consensus on this year’s General Council was that it was the best ever. It also may have been the shortest. With no more essential business to conduct, President Dave Hart adjourned Sunday night, eliminating the need to return on Labor Day.

Click here to read highlights of this year’s GC. For photos of GC, click here.

The State Worker blog reports this morning that San Francisco Superior Court Judge Charlotte Woolard tentatively ruled in favor of SEIU Local 1000, finding that state insurance code "exempt State Compensation Insurance Fund employees from the furlough." ACSS President Arlene Espinoza wrote a letter to the SCIF board demanding that any relief from furloughs be extended to its members, and the SCIF board supported ACSS' demand. The blog includes a link to the ruling and other resources.

Check out the California State Employees Association home page for information on General Council. The business agenda is here. General Council runs Thursday, Sept. 3, through Labor Day. Delegates to the council will be electing new officers and considering new resolutions.

We picked up this short item from today's State Worker blog: State workers in Utah have been working a compressed four-day workweek. They're still working 40 hours, and they haven't been furloughed. The change stems from the state's attempt to cut its energy bills. The result? A smashing success. Utah's energy use has dropped 13 percent, state workers are saving $6 million on their gas bills, and the state's greenhouse gas emissions are down by 12,000 metric tons, according to a report in Time magazine's Sept. 7 edition. Utah says it's getting calls about its 4-10 workweek from both the public and private sectors around the world.

Vice President Arlene Espinoza, right, was elected ACSS' first woman president at Delegate Assembly Sunday, July 12. She succeeds Olin King. Elnora Fretwell is the new vice president. The team of Arlene and Elnora is the first time two women have held the organization's highest offices. Both women are in Chapter 503. Terry Sutherland was reappointed secretary/treasurer, which is not a voting position. Frank Ruffino was reelected director-at-large and Carlos Chavez is alternate director-at-large, replacing Jerry Fountain. Full election results here.

As a special fund agency, the California Public Employees' Retirement System is not affected by the plan to pay some vendors and contractors with IOUs. CalPERS will issue cashable checks for all of its payments, including retiree pensions. To read the CalPERS press release, click on the headline above.

CalPERS has published the health care premium rates it has negotiated for state workers for 2010. The overall increase is 2.9 percent, the lowest in 14 years, the press release says.

This may be no surprise to state workers, but the California Budget Project has published a report, based on Franchise Tax Board data from 2007, that shows the income gap between the wealthiest 1 percent of Californians and the middle-income taxpayers has widened. The adjusted gross income of the wealthy has nearly doubled since the early 1990s, more than eight times the increase of the middle income earners. No surprise again: Average corporate profits more than doubled during the same period and almost none of it trickled down.

One state worker, in the face of pay cuts and insults, wryly defends the general public's misimpression of state service in a Sacramento Bee opinion piece.