Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's furloughs include about 1,400 state employees who process disability claims at the Department of Social Services -- and it's costing the state millions of dollars in federal money, according to a report by Mike Zapler in the San Jose Mercury News:
Sending those employees home one day a month means the state will forgo about $10 million -- or 5 percent of the agency's $210 million annual budget -- from Washington, without saving state government any money. Meanwhile, it's taking the agency longer to process claims, delaying disability benefits at a time when such requests are soaring.
"There really is no reason to do this, it's a no-brainer," said Pete Spencer, the regional commissioner for the U.S. Social Security Administration, which oversees the disability claims program. "If the governor is saying he wants to take all the money the federal government is offering, this is one area he's not doing it."
Spencer wrote to the governor twice since November to explain the problem, and early last month received from Schwarzenegger what appeared to be a form letter in response.
"To solve a budget crisis that reached monumental proportions, I was forced to make some tough choices, including furloughing state employees," the governor wrote. The letter did not acknowledge that furloughing the disability agency's workers would not shave state expenses because all its costs are paid by the federal government.
Read the Zapler piece here.
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