When a couple of major newspapers got wind of the pay cut plan and published stories, reaction was swift and furious.  Jim Zamora is with SEIU local 1,000, which represents 95-thousand state workers:

“We’re not pieces in a board game.  We’re not pawns.  We’re real people with mortgages, with car payments, with kids in schools, with families.  What the governor is doing is abusive.”

A spokesman for the Governor says the pay cut is an option – not a done deal.  And he wouldn’t confirm details.  But published reports stated the plan would affect 200-thousand workers…who’d all see their pay cut back to six dollars and 55 cents an hour.  At least until there is a state budget – at which time they’d get paid back their full salaries.  State Controller John Chiang called the proposal “just wrong” and said it would hurt the economy.  He says there will be enough cash to make payroll through September.