A citizens group is proposing an initiative that would cut legislative sessions to a maximum of 95 days and reduce lawmakers' pay by at least 50 percent. The Legislature was part time until 1966. In 2008, legislators were in session for all but a six-week period.

SEIU Local 1000 has posted a memo urging its members to stay home on Columbus Day, Oct. 12. The rationale: With no new contract, the previous contract remains in effect, and that contract gives SEIU members Columbus Day off. The DPA counters the memo by saying employees who take Columbus Day off must get permission and use leave. A KCRA.com new story is here. The State Worker blog report is here.

From this morning's State Worker blog: The state's gross payroll shrank in February, compared to February 2008, by nearly $62 million. And good news for SCIF employees, including ACSS members: Now that a judge has ruled SCIF workers are exempt from furloughs, employees will receive back pay with interest.

In her speech formally announcing her candidacy for governor Tuesday, Meg Whitman called the state bureaucracy "selfish and arrogant." She promised to cut 40,000 state workers from the payroll and crack down on their "overly generous benefits." To read readers' comments on the speech, open The State Worker blog here.

The Sacramento Bee is running a three-part series examinging the history of California's budget crisis since sales and state income taxes were first approved in the 1930s. Now a special commission and reform groups are set to propose radical changes in our tax laws, including overhauling the state constitution. Sunday part 1. Monday part 2. Tuesday part 3.

From today's State Worker column: Public employees in 21 states are being or will be furloughed, but no other government entity has reduced employee pay as steeply as California. In addition, most other states negotiated furloughs with their unions. As a result, California now has 19 furlough lawsuits in the courts.

Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg told Gov. Schwarzenegger in a letter that information the Legislature has gathered indicates the furloughs of state workers will cause California to lose millions of dollars. He suggested the governor approve the SEIU collective bargaining agreement, with one furlough day, and reach agreements with the other bargaining units. He also said he and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass will introduce a bill to reduce all furloughs by one day. For Steinberg's letter and the Legislature's findings, click here.

National Public Radio carried a segment Thursday that questioned whether furloughs save costs. "It is beginning to appear that a decline in spending, and therefore tax revenue, and the drop in efficiency associated with furloughs may offset their value," the segment reported. Nineteen states have imposed furloughs. California's furlough situation is featured, and the story mentions the spill that took more than 12 hours to clean up because it was a furlough Friday and Caltrans didn't have workers to respond.

A Sacramento Bee editorial this morning supports greater scrutiny of the state's contracts with private vendors. Although the newspaper does not support doing away with outside contracting, it does support requiring contractors to report their reasons for issuing contracts (as proposed in AB 756, which SEIU supports). You can look up any state contract over $5,000.

In a letter to California's congressional members, CalPERS is urging Congress to quickly overhaul the nation's health care system, The Sacramento Bee reports. Without reform, the letter, signed by CalPERS President Rob Feckner and CEO Anna Stausboll, said, "we will not be able to sustain our health care system." CalPERS is the nation's second-largest buyer of health care services. The CalPERS press release is here.

State Controller John Chiang announced yesterday that California will not only stop using IOUs for payments beginning Sept. 4 but will also redeem IOUs with interest that day. The move will end a "shameful chapter in our state's history," he said.

State Controller John Chiang has announced he will stop issuing IOUs Sept. 4, a month earlier than previously projected. Ending the IOUs, Chiang said in a press release today, "does not bring an end to our fiscal challenges." The press release includes a link to a graph of California's cash outlook.

Partly in response to a demand letter from ACSS, the State Compensation Insurance Fund board of directors has taken a stand on the furloughs that is very beneficial to ACSS members. Specifically, the board on July 31 authorized the SCIF president and CEO, Jan Frank, to “file a cross complaint in any of the pending court proceedings to obtain a ruling from the courts that all State Fund employees are exempted from the Governor’s Furlough Order – including those employees who are not represented by unions with current cases pending)” (italics in original). (Continue reading here.)

SEIU Local 1000 members have voted to give their leaders permission to strike. The union, which represents 95,000 state workers, are upset with Gov. Schwarzenegger for failing to have thei contract, negotiated in February, ratified. The contract called for one furlough day a month, and state workers now have been furloughed for three days. (Link has been updated.)

From the LA Times: With its staff furloughed three days a month, the Franchise Tax Board -- the state's tax collector -- could lose at least $550 million over the next three years and another $372 million for the two years after that from lost revenue and the backlog of dealing with disputes and late collections.