CALIFORNIA is broke, broke, broke.

What will happen next week if 230,000 stats employees are furloughed? Will Californians have the balls that The French have and take to the streets? From The SF GATE…

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will go ahead with his plan to furlough state employees beginning next week to ease the state’s cash crunch, after a judge ruled today that the governor has the legal authority to order workers to take time off without pay.

State workers’ unions challenged the governor’s plan to order as many as 230,000 employees to take two unpaid Fridays a month off work, beginning next Friday, arguing that the move amounted to a reduction in pay that should take place at the bargaining table and not by executive order.

But Sacramento Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette said “government codes and the (labor contracts) do give the governor the power to impose temporary furloughs.”

The governor has said the move is needed to save the state $1.3 billion as legislative leaders try to come to a solution for fixing the state’s $42 billion budget gap through June 2010. See full story HERE

In California the Shit Hits The Fan

Lovely California. I proudly called it home for many years, and still occasionally miss both its calm and craziness. If I lived in California now, and I was expecting a tax refund check, student grant or welfare check I would maybe be waiting for awhile because the controller has suspended all payments because it has NO money.

“Reporting from Sacramento — The state will suspend tax refunds, welfare checks, student grants and other payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, Controller John Chiang announced Friday.

Chiang said he had no choice but to stop making some $3.7 billion in payments in the absence of action by the governor and lawmakers to close the state’s nearly $42-billion budget deficit. More than half of those payments are tax refunds.” See story from The LA TImes HERE