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California can't give state employees a pay cut, thanks to its ancient COBOL payroll system

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Re: California can't give state employees a pay cut, thanks to its ancient COBOL payroll system

#11

Post by lacker »

hollerith wrote: post #7

No one has mentioned yet the possibility that the IT managers who claim it is impossible believe that it is unethical ever to cut the pay of a government worker (those tireless guardians of the public welfare).

In fact, today John Chiang (the controller in charge of these paychecks) is blaming COBOL, but in the past week Chiang has been saying he thought it was illegal, unethical, et cetera to enact these pay cuts. Not that Schwarzenegger's maneuvers are morally defensible, I really don't know, but it seems pretty unlikely that Chiang discovered this programming problem by coincidence the day after his other excuses failed to stop the executive order.

Re: California can't give state employees a pay cut, thanks to its ancient COBOL payroll system

#12

Post by curiousgeorge »

maximilian wrote: post #8
anthonyrubin wrote: post #5

$177 million seems much too high for a replacement system. Of course 200K employees seems much too high for a state government as well.

California is awful big and has a ton of people in it. I'm not entirely convinced that California considers itself a country but just hasn't told anyone yet. They do everything different here and even check you at the state borders. 177 million does seem like a lot though.

Considering the complexity of the system, it doesn't seem like that much. Remember that staff at the UCal systems (7 schools now?) are all state employees. A single college would probably be paying in the tens of millions for a new payment system created from scratch at market rates.

Re: California can't give state employees a pay cut, thanks to its ancient COBOL payroll system

#13

Post by tobyo »

dfranke wrote: post #9
maximilian wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California is awful big and has a ton of people in it. I'm not entirely convinced that California considers itself a country but just hasn't told anyone yet. They do everything different here and even check you at the state borders. 177 million does seem like a lot though.

> and even check you at the state borders. What are you talking about? I live in California, have been in and out a great number of times, and have never encountered anything of the sort. Besides, it would be unconstitutional.

At night, there are border patrol stops coming into CA from AZ and within the state heading north to Los Angeles from San Diego.

Re: California can't give state employees a pay cut, thanks to its ancient COBOL payroll system

#15

Post by jpcx01 »

lacker wrote: post #11
hollerith wrote: post #7

No one has mentioned yet the possibility that the IT managers who claim it is impossible believe that it is unethical ever to cut the pay of a government worker (those tireless guardians of the public welfare).

In fact, today John Chiang (the controller in charge of these paychecks) is blaming COBOL, but in the past week Chiang has been saying he thought it was illegal, unethical, et cetera to enact these pay cuts. Not that Schwarzenegger's maneuvers are morally defensible, I really don't know, but it seems pretty unlikely that Chiang discovered this programming problem by coincidence the day after his other excuses failed…

If I were in his position, I'd do the same thing. When he gets fired for not doing his job, he'll be a liberal hero for stalling the evil, tyrannical government of Schwarzenegger who was trying to suppress the lives and family's of California's most productive workers.

Re: California can't give state employees a pay cut, thanks to its ancient COBOL payroll system

#16

Post by lacker »

jpcx01 wrote: post #15
lacker wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact, today John Chiang (the controller in charge of these paychecks) is blaming COBOL, but in the past week Chiang has been saying he thought it was illegal, unethical, et cetera to enact these pay cuts. Not that Schwarzenegger's maneuvers are morally defensible, I really don't know, but it seems pretty unlikely that Chiang discovered this programming problem by coincidence the day after his other excuses failed…

If I were in his position, I'd do the same thing. When he gets fired for not doing his job, he'll be a liberal hero for stalling the evil, tyrannical government of Schwarzenegger who was trying to suppress the lives and family's of California's most productive workers.

Not sure if I would call government employees "California's most productive workers" ;-)

Re: California can't give state employees a pay cut, thanks to its ancient COBOL payroll system

#17

Post by MaysonL »

jpcx01 wrote: post #15
lacker wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact, today John Chiang (the controller in charge of these paychecks) is blaming COBOL, but in the past week Chiang has been saying he thought it was illegal, unethical, et cetera to enact these pay cuts. Not that Schwarzenegger's maneuvers are morally defensible, I really don't know, but it seems pretty unlikely that Chiang discovered this programming problem by coincidence the day after his other excuses failed…

If I were in his position, I'd do the same thing. When he gets fired for not doing his job, he'll be a liberal hero for stalling the evil, tyrannical government of Schwarzenegger who was trying to suppress the lives and family's of California's most productive workers.

If Schwarzenegger could fire him, I'm sure he would. But, just like Arnie, he's been elected by the wise and wonderful electorate of this marvelous political entity.
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