News10.net | Sacramento, California | Local News Chiang Tells Hearing State is Not Running Out of Cash

News10.net | Sacramento, California | Local News Chiang Tells Hearing State is Not Running Out of Cash: "SACRAMENTO, CA - Laid off state workers are getting their chance to speak out about the governor's executive order that eliminated their jobs.

Democratic Sen. Dean Florez called the hearing to discuss implications and legal authority of the order. The governor has been invited to testify. A representative from the administration is scheduled to appear.

State Controller John Chiang was the first to testify at the hearing. He said the state does not face a cash crisis.

The governor's order laid off 10,000 workers.

The hearing started at 10 a.m. at the State Capitol.

Updates from News10's Marcey Brightwell, who is covering the hearing:12:40 p.m.This issue came up about whether the controller has the technology available to actually cut salaries to min wage. Controller's office has called it 'impossible' to do quickly and says the bigger problem is it could take 8-10 months to retool the system back to normal to get checks flowing correctly again. The controller's payroll chief said that would be a 'catastrophe.'

'We are not convinced that's the case,' Fred Klass, Chief Operating Officer Dept of Finance said.

11:42 a.m.Chiang estimated that higher than expected revenues this summer will likely leave California with $4 billion in reserve at end of Sept. The state likes a cushion of $2.5 billion. Contrast that to the layoffs. Administration officials say they don't have an exact count (still tabulating employee exemptions) but initially estimated the immediate layoffs would save the state $19 million a month. Drop in the bucket...

11:10 a.m.Chiang called the gov's order a "cruel executive order" that will have "no meaningful" impact on cash flow. He also says the state has enough cash to get through Sept. into October. He says the gov's claim that the state is running out of cash is "not true."

BRAVO ISANDYS!!!

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ISandyS wrote: Everyone keeps complaining about the Executive Order. Why is no one complaining about the Legislators taking a vacation without a budget in place. They had a deadline of June 15. They had from January 10 to June 15 to get it done. When will someone say something about that. If they did their job as prescribed by law and which we are paying them to do, we would not be in this situation.