Schwazenegger's attempts to cut payroll expenses not working

[Atash Hagmahani]

This is almost funny:

http://www.marketoracle.biz/Article5782.html

California Computers Can't Perform Pay Cut Because of COBOL

The Sacramento Bee is reporting California state computers can't handle pay cut, controller says .
If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to issue minimum-wage checks to 200,000 state workers in less than a month, he may want to rehire any semi-retired computer programmers he terminated last week.

The massive pay cut would exhaust the state's antiquated payroll system, which is built on a Vietnam-era computer language so outdated that many college students don't even bother to learn it anymore.

Democratic state Controller John Chiang said Monday it would take at least six months to reconfigure the state's payroll system to issue blanket checks at the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour, though Schwarzenegger insists such a change should occur this month.

Experts say Chiang isn't joking when he describes the state's payroll system as a computing relic on par with vacuum tubes and floppy disks.

"It's an example of a number of computer systems in which the state made a large investment decades ago and has been keeping it going the last few years with duct tape," said Michael Cohen, director of state administration with the Legislative Analyst's Office.

The Republican governor signed an executive order last week recommending the cut to minimum wage for most permanent state workers and terminating 10,133 temporary and part-time employees. He believes the state must take drastic steps to preserve cash over the next two months as the state continues to operate without a budget 36 days into the new fiscal year.

Chiang reiterated Monday that he will ignore the order and issue full paychecks to state workers. He disputes Schwarzenegger's legal interpretation of a 2003 California Supreme Court decision, which the governor said mandates that the state pay only minimum wage to employees until a budget is passed.

It sounds as if there are actually two obstacles: the antiquated payroll system, and unwillingness to carry out the governor's orders.

California has been deep in financial trouble for a long time...that was the whole point of the recall election that put Herr Schwarzenegger in office. However, it doesn't seem to be getting any better, and the size and ossified nature of the state's government guarantee no easy fix.

[Kitteh]

Well, to most people the government is some big parent-thing that they report a problem to and expect the problem to be magically fixed.

Fixing the problem might actually inconvenience us?!  Say it ain't so!  Daddy-Government can fix anything if you believe hard enough!  Tighten our belts?!  But isn't it the government's JOB to make sure we don't have to. . . 

It's enough to make you weep.  The parts that really annoy me are the ones who want a tax cut and still want the government to pay for everything.

Tanstaafl!