SACRAMENTO AND LOS ANGELES — Thousands of state workers stayed home without pay Friday, closing Department of Motor Vehicles offices but allowing some agencies to function on Day One of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's mandatory furlough program.
"I studied a lot for this test," said a disappointed Anthony Martinez, 17, of Los Angeles, who skipped classes at Belmont High School to take the written test for a driver's learning permit, only to find out the DMV office near USC was closed.
Under the program, about 238,000 workers are required to take two days off per month without pay. For most employees, those days are the first and third Fridays of the month, but it was unclear how many workers actually were off the job. Some departments brought workers in for the day without pay, ordering them to take a day off later.
"We're working -- we're just not getting paid for today," said Claudia Portillo, a receptionist at the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board office in downtown Los Angeles.
Lawmakers and the governor have so far failed to reach a deal on how to close the nearly $42-billion deficit projected by the middle of next year. An agreement continued to elude them Friday.
Schwarzenegger's administration said the furloughs would save $1.3 billion over the next 17 months, but some workers and officials have questioned that figure, arguing that the resulting overtime and lost federal dollars in some services could end up costing at least as much as the furloughs save.
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office warned that such 24-hour facilities as prisons and mental hospitals, which already are short-staffed and paying substantial overtime, probably will not save the state money by forcing workers to take unpaid days off.
LaRae Bustamante, furloughed from her job processing disability claims at the Department of Social Services headquarters in Sacramento, questioned how keeping her from her federally funded work would save the state money.
"It's ridiculous," Bustamante said. "It's blowing up the house when the roof needs fixing. My disabled clients are going to have to go two days a month without their cases being worked on."
Roland Becht, a DMV field representative in Sacramento and a member of his union's bargaining team, said some DMV workers were brought in on the Martin Luther King Jr. state holiday, earning extra pay, to process registrations and licenses in anticipation of Friday's furlough.
