Hello All:
Despite tomorrow being another furlough day for the State of California, it's been a long, long week. Our productivity has understandably been terrible. However, this morning, we finally got a budget. Among other things, the budget eliminated $1 million dollars for the State Controller John Chiang's office to buy new furniture. Thinking about this and the actual deficit makes me realize that most people have troubles with large numbers. For example, how many millions are there in a billion? For the answer, see below:
There are 1 thousand millions in a billion. In other words, a $42 billion dollar deficit could be also expressed as $42,000 million (forty two thousand million). So, you can see that getting rid of $1 million dollars in the budget (1 out of 42,000) is almost invisible.
Senator Maldonado has probably done more damage to the Republican Party than they have to themselves by insisting on open primaries. A sink hole opened recently along SR-215 in Murrieta which happens to be the home town of the new State Republican Party Ayatollah, Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, who replaced the previous Senate minority leader in a late night putsch a couple of days ago. This is not in my District but I do know that it's pretty important area to get fixed. Hopefully, they'll have something patched together by Monday morning. I know they'll do their best to serve the public.
SEIU, local 1000 members were upset when they were told today that despite have a tentative agreement with the State of California they had to go on furlough with the rest of us on 2/20. The tentative agreement cut down their furlough days from 2 days a month to 1 day a month. Also, although they have to 'give up' two holidays, Lincoln's Birthday and Columbus Day, they now get two new floating holidays instead. However, local members still have to approve the agreement and then the legislature has to endorse it. Their agreement also apparently includes an agreement to not ask for raises for the next 2 years. I'm not a member so this is just hearsay. Still, I'm concerned that they State will try and get the rest of the unions to agree to the same template.
As I've already said, I'm tired, I need to do the dishes and I'll be studying for my PMP (Project Management Professional) exam tomorrow. While I enjoy writing most of the time, I am an engineer and if I find someone has already done a good job on the issues, I won't reinvent the wheel. The New York Times Lede blog section has done a good job dealing with some of the more interesting issues and including good links to the Los Angeles Times in their article, "What’s the Matter With California?". Follow the links for a good backgrounder. For those of you who want more, here you go: "Budget plan goes to Schwarzenegger after Legislature's OK"