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State Employees Take First Furlough Friday in California: Offices to Be Closed First & Third Fridays

Be careful if you plan on going to a California DMV office on a Friday. Like many state offices, DMV locations across the state will be closed on the first and third Friday of every month for a while. The forced furloughs are an attempt to save money as the state grapples with monumental budgetary problems.

The LA Times reported today that over 200,000 employees of the state of California took their first "Furlough Friday." To save money at a time when the state's deficit forecast to reach up to $42 billion, Governor Schwarzenegger issued an executive order last December requiring state employees to take two unpaid days off per month. The executive order calls for the cuts to remain in force through June 30, 2010.

As the Sacramento Bee reported, some confusion has grown around whether employees of state-wide elected officials must take the furloughs. For now, it appears that these 15,600 employees of the lieutenant governor, state controller, secretary of state, treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, insurance commissioner, attorney general and independent Board of Equalization will be working on Furlough Fridays.

The AP reports this partial list of what will be open and what will be closed the first and third Friday of each month.

• Gov. Schwarzenegger's Executive Order
• California DMV: Closed First and Third Friday of Each Month
• California: Answers to Employee Questions about the Furloughs
• San Jose Mercury News: Few major problems as state workers take first 'Furlough Friday'
• Sacramento Bee: Controller, unions keep California furlough fight alive in 2 courts
• SF Chronicle: State's credit rating falls to worst in nation

Full post as published by FindLaw's Common Law on February 06, 2009 (boomark / email).