California Media Collaborative

Governor Schwarzenegger’s plan to impose furloughs on some 200,000 state workers — three days a month — at first glance seemed among the most reasonable of the radical budget cuts he proposed for the state.

A few days here, a few days there, imposed on all state workers regardless of what they did, seemed like a fair approach. And those state workers … do we really need them anyway?

Don’t most of those state employees just sit behind a desk, pushing papers, and not very efficiently at that?

Now some of the rippling effects of the furloughs are just beginning to be felt — and they are surely not what our governor had in mind.

A sad story by Shane Goldmacher from the Los Angeles Times describes how furloughed state workers are no longer able to make house payments and are facing bankruptcy and eviction from their homes.

And these aren’t exactly fatcat bureaucrats.  As the Times’ story notes, Rochelle Johnson who schedules appointments for people seeking federal disability payments, makes $38,000 a year.  Her son, who already has served a tour of duty in Iraq, has reenlisted for active duty in the Army National Guard, to help out his mom and 15 year old sister make it through.

Her salary is paid entirely by the federal government — so the state saves nothing.  In fact, Californians may be losing federal dollars, because there are fewer workers to process disability claims.

Carrie Ann and John Quintos work for the state’s woker compensation board, and made a combined income of $70,000 –and that’s before the 14 percent cut imposed by the furlough plan.  Their house was foreclosed on because they could no longer make their monthly mortgage payments.

And so it goes.

The Fresno Bee, in an editorial, argues that it’s all the employee unions’ fault for not being willing to negotiate salary reductions,  and that furloughs are a “lesser evil.”

But furloughs have the same impact on state employees  as a paycut.

Even Sen. Dianne Feinstein, not known for shoot-from-the hip pronouncements, denounced the furloughs of workers like Johnson who process claims for federal benefits  as “harmful and shortsighted” in a letter to Schwarzenegger this week.

Surely lawmakers didn’t anticipate that furloughs on  state employees to contribute to the foreclosure crisis, thus further depressing property values for all Californians, or to result in less federal funds for the state during the worst recession in nearly a century.

Or did they?