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CA Assembly Receive Raises While My Husband Gets Furloughed
So I'm reading my online news when I come accross this little tidbit of information which got me FUMING!:
*At least 87 California Assembly staff members received raises totaling more than $430,000 on an annualized basis, even as the state faced a growing budget deficit that led to furloughs and pay cuts for many other government workers and steep reductions in core services. click here to read the whole article then come back and read my rant.
The review of records obtained under the state Legislative Open Records Act found that part of the $430,000 salary increases given to the California Assembly staff members went to three employees in the office of Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, the Los Angeles Democrat who leads the 80-member chamber, and three to staff members of the Democratic caucus she oversees.
The San Fransisco Chronicles also reports, “In the 40-member Senate, nine staffers had a boost in pay, leading to an annualized increase of $152,000.”
So let’s recap, shall we? My husband, along with all the other State employees are asked to “take one for the team” or to make a “small” sacrifice for the states “greater good.” While these bastards are getting pay raises?
Shannon Murphy, spokesperson for Los Angeles Democrat Assembly Speaker Karen Bass even has the NERVE to defend the increases in by stating that the legislative employees are “working harder than ever.”
Oh really now! So you FINALLY made those cuts you should have made a LONG time ago so we wouldn’t have gotten in this horrible mess to begin with and we’re supposed to applaud you?
They have also made cuts in my husband’s department and even layed some people off and guess what?
My husband STILL gets THREE furloughs a month.
Except, GUESS WHAT? They can’t afford to have him have a day off so he gets to WORK those furlough days and NOT get paid for them.
AND? When he gets “held over” for overtime? It’s actually STRAIGHT TIME.
Yeah, so don’t be bragging about the sacrifices your office has made because while the people that weren’t layed off have to “sacrifice” by working EXTRA.. they are getting PAID FOR IT while my husband does it FREE ”for the greater good of California.”
So take this Ding Dong:
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, Shannon Murphy, all you Legislature assholes that are protecting your asses through the The Legislative Open Records Act and refusing to make your payroll records available electronically, Assemblywoman Lori Saldana, Lucy Krohn, Joe Kocurek, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Jim Evans, Alicia Trost, and Arnold Schwarzenegger for not paying more attention to these assholes who seem to be profiting from our state budget crisis.
And shove it up your ass where the sun don’t shine!
If my family is willing to make sacrifices and adjust our spending then all our California politicians and employees should be willing to do the same!
*CLICK HERE to read full article where this information was gathered from.
Comments
here are comments I'm getting from this same article on my bakotopia.com blog:
Lucky for us, our credit union has deferred our truck payments until next year, which is when supposedly the furloughs are supposed to end. Otherwise we would have probably lost that truck, or the house, or our credit rating since we would have to pick and choose which bills to pay and which to let go. Also, my husband does all the "overtime" he can to make up the rest of the chunk of cash the State is taking from us so that we don't get delinquent on our bills. I say "overtime" with quotes around it because it is actually STRAIGHT time until he makes up the three "furlough" days .. it's confusing to me. All I know is it sucks and we're barely scraping by. So when I read that politicians staff are getting raises to make up for the "extra work" they have to put in because of their own cutbacks it makes me wanna shove a Ding Dong up their booties. My husband is working EXTRA HARD too bastards! When does he get HIS raise?
Yep they get free gas free cars free free ,..If we didn't like these people why do we vote for them,.i didn't vote for any of them. Seems the more we make the more we spend. I feel your pain Twinkie, but I'm the guy with out feet and sadly you only don't have shoes,.. And i know there are people worse off then me. But when people were romanced by Arnold and star status i wasn't impressed,.i'm not impressed with assembly people either, the only decent ones are very far and few between, I too have family in state corrections and am seeing all the things that are going on that are hard times for them. I'm blessed that I have a vehicle that runs great and is 12 years old. no payment there. I think we re all having to go back to the old fashion notion of saving for the things we really need and eliminating debt. I think we has a nation have kinda wanted our cake and eat it too all at one time, and that's what the political agenda has done as well I do hope you can make it financially,. I know It's been hard for me But this is where sheer faith comes in. You know I'm still alive and kicking and doing OK ;) we all will get through this to spend spend spend again, ti's the American way! we ignore problems until it's too late,..like the budget geez all that money went to school's that wasn't won by some moron with the lotto, or did it? Did it go in someone's pocket. I am happy i have a roof over my head clothes on my back and something to eat,.. When you were as close to death as i was last week it's not all that important the fancy BS in life, you know? breathing is a nice thing, especially when you have a child to take care in this world,..sorry i rambled. I do that sometimes.
That's great about your truck payment!! You know, when you really think about it, how hard are they really working?? They don't know the meaning of the words "hard work" Building houses is hard work, farming is hard work, waiting tables is hard work, washing cars is hard work, cleaning hotel rooms is hard work. Sitting at a desk all day, pushing papers and pens around is not real work.
Reading this made me so MAD! I can't imagine how frustrating this must be for you with your situation. Thank you for the information, the more of us that know things the harder it will be for the politicians to sneak and do this kinda crap. Best of luck to you and yours!
thanks faith. The thing is, normally I'm not a bitter person. And most of the time, I try to see both sides of the coin. But this time? It pissed me off because HELLO they're bragging about all the money they are saving us because of their budget cuts? Really? Because these are budget cuts you should have made LONG AGO and then we wouldn't be in this mess. Then.. my husband gets a "pay cut" and supposedly three extra days off a month.. but guess what? He's not allowed to take those days because they are understaffed because they layed off a bunch of employees. BUT he still gets paid like he's taking those three days off. So for the Assembly speaker to say, well it's not really pay raises.. it's because they are working extra..... UGH! LOL
I wonder, are they violating any labor laws? It kind of seems like it to me but I'm no expert.
They are. That was our general consensus and then to back it up the news guy said it last night too. BUT because they are shielded by the "State of Emergency" status because of our budget crisis, they can basically do whatever they want.
Here's another thing that upsets me about this whole thing (and now I'm just being selfish because it doesn't involve ALL State employees, only the ones covered under my husband's union)
The President of the union has attempted SEVERAL times to come up with different solutions so that they don't furlough the members such as suggesting the State doesn't contibrute to their retirement for a set amount of time. This would save such and such amounts of money. Or other similar stuff, like take out of their benefits where we really won't see it until much later but it makes a HUGE difference money-wise now. but the State has rejected all those suggestions and would rather watch State employees lose their homes/cars/etc.
We refuse to give up. So I work overtime when I can and so does my hubby. We worked too damned hard to build our credit up just to let it go like that.
ok so I went in search of something to back up my "State of Emergency" comment and found nothing. LOL So I think I might have made that part up? BUT basically, YES it is violating labor laws, in theory. But the State can do whatever it wants to do because well, it's the State. hahahahaa