Budget Impasse Might Delay Paychecks for State Workers

Despite signals that the state budget impasse in Sacramento is close to resolution, the morale of state employees in Ventura County took a heavy blow Thursday when they were told that next week’s monthly paychecks might not arrive as scheduled.

“People are very upset. Basically they feel like the Ping-Pong between the governor and the legislators,” said Yvonne Markham, a state employees union representative in Ventura. “So morale is very bad, and people are very anxious about getting paid.”

Markham said she began on Thursday to notify 1,700 state employees in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties who are represented by the California State Employees Assn. that the budget crisis will most likely delay issuance of Aug. 1 paychecks, perhaps for several days.

“Even if they get it done today or possibly tomorrow, we cannot guarantee that the state can get the checks out by the 1st,” she said.

Markham also began Thursday to warn state employees in her union that they might receive no payroll checks until the new budget is signed and passed.

As the state government entered its 26th day without a budget, Gov. George Deukmejian and legislative leaders signaled some progress Thursday in resolving their differences over how to balance a $50-billion budget. However, state officials said a signed and adopted budget is still a few days away.

Meanwhile, about 10 demonstrators--including some welfare recipients--carried signs and marched Thursday afternoon in front of the Ventura County Government Center to protest several cuts in social services proposed for the new state budget.

Beverly Edmon, a spokeswoman for the Ventura County Welfare Rights Organization, said she was protesting a proposal in the state budget to freeze welfare grants, Medi-Cal rates and grants to the aged, blind and disabled.

“I’m concerned with the condition of the poor people, most of whom are children,” she said.

The news that monthly paychecks to state employees would most likely be late prompted angry protests from Caltrans workers in the county who did not receive their mid-July checks because of the budget impasse.

Unlike the rest of the state work force, Department of Transportation maintenance employees and those who work for state lawmakers are paid twice a month. There are 110 Caltrans workers and about 40 employees of area legislators in Ventura County who did not receive mid-July paychecks.

“What’s happening in Sacramento is not fair to state employees,” said Bruce Dyar, Caltrans regional manager at the Ventura road maintenance yard.

While he acknowledged that many Caltrans workers have been grumbling over the delay in receiving their paychecks, Dyar said Caltrans workers have continued to complete their work on time.

“I have not seen any slowdown of work,” he said. “They all appear to continue working as if they are getting their checks.”

Dyar said many of his workers, who patch roads and tend plants along rights of way, “live from paycheck to paycheck” and the delay may force some to borrow to pay their monthly bills.

“I don’t know that they are starving to death, but they are hungry for a paycheck,” Dyar said.

Employees at the Ventura office of state Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) look the news in stride.

Beverly O’Gorman, an administrative assistant at Hart’s Ventura office, said the office has received dozens of calls in the last week from concerned employees--including professors at state colleges and workers at state employment development offices--who want to know the status of budget talks in Sacramento.

Hart employs three full-time staff workers in his Ventura office, two in his Santa Barbara office and three more in Woodland Hills, she said.

Although employees are expressing concern about meeting financial obligations, O’Gorman said most of them are making ends meet. Plus, she said, the crisis has generated “some camaraderie.”

“We are trying to bolster each others’ spirits,” she said.

Markham said the California State Employees Assn. on Thursday began sending members a three-page flyer titled “What Happens If I Don’t Get Paid?”

Markham said the association filed a lawsuit Thursday in Sacramento, asking a Superior Court judge to require the state to pay all employees who might go without paychecks due to the budget impasse.

The flyer also warns that employees “could receive no checks at all until the budget is passed and signed. It is important to remember that you will get paid in full eventually. The checks are delayed, not revoked.”

The flyer also informs workers about emergency loans offered by state credit unions. One union offered emergency loans of up to 90% of the amount of one normal paycheck at 9% interest. A loan must be repaid from the next paycheck.