From Contra Costa Times:

About 200,000 state employees are bracing for steep pay cuts as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to sign an executive order that would reduce their wages to the federal minimum wage — $6.55 an hour.

Schwarzenegger is slated to sign the order — which also includes laying off 22,000 part-time employees — Thursday, the first day of the state’s pay period. That has employees, legislators and public employee groups outraged and worried — especially because the budget negotiations appear to remain deadlocked.

“I’m hearing from a lot of people who feel it’s heartless for a multimillionaire to do this to working people who have to stretch every dollar to make it,” said Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley. “It’s a complete lack of empathy for what the ordinary working family is going through.”

Schwarzenegger has said cuts in the wages of state workers are necessary because the state is expected to run short on revenues beginning Friday. Now, more than a month after missing the constitutional deadline to pass a budget, Schwarzenegger and legislators have failed to agree on how to resolve an estimated $15.2 billion cash shortfall.

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