California's Furlough Fridays are back



NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Closed signs went up at California agencies Friday as a second slew of mandatory furloughs went into effect for government employees in an effort to resolve California's $19 billion budget deficit.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to the governor's office, ordered state workers to take three unpaid days off per month until a new budget is in place and the Department of Finance certifies that California has enough cash to meet its financial obligations through the end of the fiscal year.

The furloughs were to have started Aug. 1 but were temporarily blocked by a lower court decision. On Wednesday, the state supreme court allowed the furloughs to resume.

The Professional Engineers in California Government union, which had previously sued on the grounds that the governor did not have the authority to furlough employees, said it will urge the supreme court to rule that the furloughs are illegal. Employees are entitled to full paychecks, the union said in a statement.

The furloughs affect about 150,000 state employees and will save $150 million a month, the governor's office said.

Cash-strapped California first implemented furloughs in February 2009, demanding employees take two unpaid days off per month.

As revenues continued to plummet six months later, officials bumped the number of monthly furlough days to three. That mandate expired with the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

In addition to furloughs, California may also have to issue IOUs in two to four weeks to keep the state solvent, according to State Controller John Chiang.

He estimates there are $2.2 billion in expenses -- mainly to social service agencies, vendors and schools -- that will go unpaid in August. Last year, a budget crunch forced California to issue 450,000 IOUs worth $2.6 billion between July 2 and Sept. 4

Schwarzenegger is also trying to impose the minimum wage on state workers until a budget is passed, but that effort remains tied up in the courts.

--The CNN Wire and CNNMoney senior writer Tami Luhby and staff reporter Hibah Yousuf contributed to this article.  To top of page

Just the hot list include
Frontline troops push for solar energy
The U.S. Marines are testing renewable energy technologies like solar to reduce costs and casualties associated with fossil fuels. Play
25 Best Places to find rich singles
Looking for Mr. or Ms. Moneybags? Hunt down the perfect mate in these wealthy cities, which are brimming with unattached professionals. More
Fun festivals: Twins to mustard to pirates!
You'll see double in Twinsburg, Ohio, and Ketchup lovers should beware in Middleton, WI. Here's some of the best and strangest town festivals. Play
Index Last Change % Change
Dow 32,627.97 -234.33 -0.71%
Nasdaq 13,215.24 99.07 0.76%
S&P 500 3,913.10 -2.36 -0.06%
Treasuries 1.73 0.00 0.12%
Data as of 6:29am ET
Company Price Change % Change
Ford Motor Co 8.29 0.05 0.61%
Advanced Micro Devic... 54.59 0.70 1.30%
Cisco Systems Inc 47.49 -2.44 -4.89%
General Electric Co 13.00 -0.16 -1.22%
Kraft Heinz Co 27.84 -2.20 -7.32%
Data as of 2:44pm ET
Sponsors

Sections

Bankrupt toy retailer tells bankruptcy court it is looking at possibly reviving the Toys 'R' Us and Babies 'R' Us brands. More

Land O'Lakes CEO Beth Ford charts her career path, from her first job to becoming the first openly gay CEO at a Fortune 500 company in an interview with CNN's Boss Files. More

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.