Schwarzenegger may trim holidays
SACRAMENTO - California's generous offering of holidays for state workers - the equivalent of nearly three work weeks - is among the items Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking to trim to help counter a mounting budget deficit.
Lincoln's Birthday and Columbus Day would get the ax under a proposal the governor's administration estimates will save $114 million during this fiscal year and the next one starting in July.
"We think it's not so painful to give up a couple of holidays," said Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger's finance director.
Union leaders are resisting the move, but California isn't the only state looking to save money by cutting back on paid days off.
New Jersey passed a benefit-cutting bill in September that included eliminating Lincoln's Birthday as a state paid holiday amid a budget deficit projected to reach $1.2 billion in the current fiscal year. Governor Jon Corzine also stopped the tradition of giving employees the day after Thanksgiving as a paid day off.
Utah, which is experimenting with a four-day work week, eliminated Columbus Day as a paid holiday.
Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, said California and New Jersey are rare because they offer so many paid holidays to government workers: 14 in California, which includes a "personal holiday," and 13 in New Jersey.
ASSOCIATED PRESS 