We noted earlier today that Gov. Jerry Brown's budget plan allows for a $395 million "augmentation" for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The money would go to pay correctional officers' salaries, inmate medical transportation costs and a few other things.
But does that mean Brown is assuming a contract with full hours and pay for correctional officers? Is the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, one of six unions without a contract, going to escape a pay cut?
No, state Finance Department spokesman H.D. Palmer told The Bee's Kevin Yamamura. Brown's budget is merely accepting fiscal reality.
The previous budget claimed Corrections pay savings that never materialized. But Brown (who is using the same Finance folks his predecessor used) isn't playing that game. Instead, he's laying out the real costs.
"One of the things we're basically doing is truing up the Corrections budget," Palmer said. "Too often in the past, the Corrections budget was based on savings that never materialized, and then it was dealt on the back end."
It's not a signal that correctional officers won't be asked to accept a compensation cut to contribute toward the $308 million in employee savings in bargained labor concessions that the budget plan envisions.
Brown isn't protecting correctional officers from the 8 percent to 10 percent salary reductions he intends to negotiate, Palmer said, so the additional amount of money for the department would be lower should the prison officers' union and Brown reach a deal to cut salaries.
IMAGE: www.cdcr.ca.gov
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