California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced that all California state employees will be furloughed for one day each month for the next year and a half. Note that I said "all" California state employees. (See the attached letter. Click on each page to see it full sized.) This includes the California Disability Determination Services (DDS) unit that makes decisions at the initial and reconsideration levels for Social Security disability claims, even though the California DDS is funded by the Social Security Administration. This could make backlogs much worse in California. It is an enormous headache for Social Security.
California is not the only state with severe budget problems. My state, North Carolina, has a huge shortfall and a state constitution that requires a balanced budget. California may not be the only state to use generalized partial furloughs of state employees.
Are you sure this applies to DDS? When I worked at DDS, any state budget problems didn't affect us because our funding was 100% federal. When our state had a hiring freeze, DDS was still hiring people on a regular basis.
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