Governor Schwarzenegger is asking the court to reinstate furloughs right away. The governor’s press secretary, Aaron McLear says furloughs are necessary to save money while the state doesn’t have a budget.
“They’d save us 150 million each month that we do those and because we don’t
have a budget we’re running out of cash.”
The governor had ordered state workers to take three unpaid days off a month. But earlier this week a judge sided with several unions who had filed suit to block the move. The judge said that the previous year and a half of furloughs has hurt workers’ credit, kept them from paying their mortgages, and some workers haven’t even been able to pay for adequate food and medicine. The judge is expected to rule later this week whether to reinstate furloughs Friday.
