As the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger was the technology of the future, feared by humans.
As California governor, he’s being foiled by the technology of the past.
For the second time in two years, Schwarzenegger has ordered most state workers’ pay cut to the federal minimum wage because lawmakers missed their deadline to fix the state’s US$19 billion budget deficit.
The legislature’s failure to act has left the state with no spending plan as the new fiscal year begins.
A state appellate court ruled in the Republican governor’s favor on Friday, but the state controller, who issues state paychecks, says he can’t comply. One reason given by Controller John Chiang, a Democrat: The state’s computer system can’t handle the technological challenge of restating paychecks to the federal minimum of US$7.25 an hour.
Chiang cited Friday’s ruling by the 3rd District Court of Appeals, which said “unfeasibility” would excuse him from complying with Schwarzenegger’s minimum wage order. He said a fix to the state’s computerized payroll system won’t be ready until October 2012.
Meanwhile, more than 200,000 state workers remain in limbo about the size of their paychecks this month, while Chiang asks the court for guidance on how to proceed. If wages are indeed cut to US$7.25 an hour, employees will be reimbursed once a budget is signed.
The state’s payroll system was designed more than 60 years ago and was last revamped in 1970, Hallye Jordan, state controller’s office spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.
Asked if the administration agreed that the payroll system could not handle the change, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman Aaron McLear cited last year’s lower court ruling in the governor’s favor. In part, it said the controller’s office “has not made a sufficient factual showing of impossibility.”
The state’s chief information officer declined to take a position when asked whether it would be technically possible for the controller to follow the order.
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