California Is Owed Millions by State Employees (sales, credit card)

[SportyandMisty]

From the New York Times, the paper of record for the Progressive Left:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/us...nt&tntemail1=y



"When the State of California began handing out i.o.u.’s in 2009 because of a cash shortage, taxpayers were predictably aghast. But few knew at the time that even as pay-you-later notes kept going out, state agencies were also doling out millions of dollars in interest-free loans in the form of salary and travel advances to employees without collecting repayment.

Now, with the state budget facing a devastating $26.5 billion deficit, Gov. Jerry Brown is demanding that agencies immediately stop the practice and determine how much money employees with unpaid loans owe the state.

The state controller began investigating the practice two years ago and has issued several audits about the practice. In 2009, for example, an audit found that 11 agencies had more than $13 million in outstanding loans. In many cases, the agencies had not collected on the loans at all... "

[cb73]

I read that story, and I wish they had researched it a bit better, and named what agency did that.

My agency will only give out a salary advance after you have jumped through numerous hoops and it is automatically deducted from your next paycheck. No exceptions.

I have a co-worker who is required to travel and has on a few occasions received a travel advance. Normally she is required to pay for everything herself, using her own credit card, and then pay it back with interest, while waiting for the state to reimburse her just the original amount--often 3 to 5 months later. They are very strict about what they will pay for--if she has to be somewhere at 8am Monday, they'll make her take a 4am flight so there won't be an overnight charge, book her to return at 10 or 11 that night, then she has to be back at work the next day for her normal shift.

Traveling for the state is not all the freebies/sun/fun that it seems to be made out to be.

I would like to know what agency is giving out the free money--and if they have any job openings. I wonder if it's the same agency that has the "free retirement"--I still can't afford to retire.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by cb73

Traveling for the state is not all the freebies/sun/fun that it seems to be made out to be.

At a point in time both my wife and I refused to do anymore traveling for the state because we totally lost confidence in its reimbursement policies and time lines.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by cb73

I read that story, and I wish they had researched it a bit better, and named what agency did that...

The New York Times has never beeb accused of being intellectually honest.

Originally Posted by cb73

... I still can't afford to retire.

Join the club. It is not particularly exclusive.

[Ulysses61]

Public employees are a tiny drop in the bucket compared to what illegals cost California every year. Just the cost of illegals for one year in CA prisons is 2.4 billion dollars. And that's just prisons.

[.highnlite]

Originally Posted by Ulysses61

Public employees are a tiny drop in the bucket compared to what illegals cost California every year. Just the cost of illegals for one year in CA prisons is 2.4 billion dollars. And that's just prisons.

Mebbe, but, all of this would collapse if the illegals went away, in addition more than 100 billion dollars in peripheral economy (stores, truck and tractor dealers, Walmart) would also collapse, sending California into a disastrous depression,

California remained the No. 1 state in cash farm receipts in 2009, with its $34.8 billion in revenue representing 12.3 percent of the U.S. total. The state accounted for 16.5 percent of national receipts for crops, and 6.5 percent of the U.S. revenue for livestock and livestock products.

California’s agricultural abundance includes more than 400 commodities. The state produces nearly half of U.S.-grown fruits, nuts and vegetables. Across the nation, U.S. consumers regularly purchase several crops produced solely in California.

In 2009, 81,500 farms operated in California, less than 4 percent of the national total. More than 23 percent of California farms produced commodity sales totaling $100,000, compared with 17 percent for the U.S. as a whole. During 2009, California lands devoted to farming and ranching totaled 25.4 million acres, unchanged from 2008. Both the California and U.S. average farm size remained steady from the previous year at 312 and 418 acres, respectively.

California is home to some of the most productive counties in the nation. According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture’s ranking of market value of agricultural products sold, nine of the nation’s top 10 producing counties are in California. The sales of these nine counties accounted for 6.6 percent of the nation’s total sales value.

So, rather than complaining and whining, do you have a rational solution?