Give 'em hell Arnold and don't back down!!!

Schwarzenegger sues controller to force pay cuts

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California's top payroll official are headed for a court fight over the governor's attempt to cut the pay of about 175,000 state employees until lawmakers approve a budget.

A lawsuit against state Controller John Chiang was filed Monday in Sacramento County Superior Court. The suit says the state Constitution and several sections of law prohibit the state from paying full wages without approval of a budget.

The controller, a Democrat whose office is responsible for paying state employees, has balked at carrying out the Republican governor's July 31 executive order cutting employees' pay until a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 is approved. Lawmakers are divided over how to close a $15.2 billion deficit.

Schwarzenegger directed that the pay of nearly 140,000 rank-and-file employees be cut to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour. About 30,000 management employees would be paid $455 a week, and another 8,000 workers, mostly doctors and attorneys, would get nothing. All those workers would get the remainder of their normal paychecks after the budget is approved.

"We don't believe we are in a position to wait much longer for resolution of this question," said Lynelle Jolley, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger's Department of Personnel Administration.

Chiang said the governor has "created a solution to a problem that does not exist."

"Rather than focus on building consensus for a budget that addresses California's long-term fiscal problems, the governor seems adamant on picking a fight over whether state employees are entitled to the wages they have worked for and earned," the controller said in a statement.

He said he was confident the court would agree with him that it was impossible to alter the pay of so many state employees in a short period of time.

The two sides met last week to discuss how Schwarzenegger's order could be implemented.

The administration suggested that the controller could suspend the employees' regular pay and implement the lower compensation as a "special pay differential." Administration officials said that process is employed when pay for legislative employees and others is suspended during budget impasses.

A controller's official said Monday that the process wasn't that simple.

Don Scheppmann, head of the controller's personnel and payroll services division, said it could "subject the state to further litigation and unnecessary costs." In a letter, he asked to be given until the end of the week to provide a "thoughtful and thorough analysis" of the options proposed by the Schwarzenegger administration.

The state already is being sued by the Service Employees International Union over the provision of Schwarzenegger's order that laid off more than 10,000 temporary, part-time and contract employees.