The State Worker column this morning speculates on ways the governor could retract his plan to extend furloughs for state workers. Some are less fanciful than others.

In breaking news, The Sacramento Bee is reporting that the governor's 2010 budget plan will keep furloughs for state workers and include layoff options and perhaps shifting some general fund workers into positions financed with other revenues. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said he hopes to "curtain the number of furlough days and shift the burden of cost savings away from state employees." Gov. Schwarzenegger will present his budget plan the first week of January. (This link was updated to an expanded story Dec. 24.)

Updated story from The Sacramento Bee: An Alameda Superior Court judge has ruled the furloughs are illegal for state correctional officers whose pay is reduced but who have to wait to take their time off. The CCPOA had argued that the furloughs violated a labor law that stipulates compensation at 24/7 facilities be paid within a given pay cycle. The decision doesn't invalidate the furloughs but requires the officers be paid back wages. Three other furlough cases are awaiting decision.

Three years into an expensive overhaul of state prison health care, the state in 2008 spent $60 million on health care overtime. Many medical staffers are working 16- and 18-hour shifts; the average is 12 hours. Spending on medical temps is another issue: Doctors who are not state employees have made as much as $527 an hour. Read The Sacramento Bee's two-part series on prison medical staffing: Part 1 and Part 2.

From The Sacramento Bee: The Franchise Tax Board has asked for a furlough exemption for its employees for the year after furloughs are supposed to end. Is that a signal the furloughs will continue or, as, an FTB spokesman says, "just planning."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

First, the State Worker blog reported the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education had issued a study ("The High Cost of Furloughs") showing that one furlough day would have the saved the state more money than three furlough days. The Berkeley study also noted the hardship the furloughs have caused state workers and the folly of furloughing workers in revenue-generating departments. Now a San Diego Union-Tribune blog attempts to reveal the study's "shoddiness."