Cheap publicity stunt

The governor has signed an executive order cutting the pay of state workers to minimum wage. This is due to the inability of the state Legislature to pass a budget, as it is being held up by a small minority of legislators.

Many state workers have families, and you can expect that this will have an effect on their children. Additionally, this will drive many families into foreclosure, adding to our housing woes.

Please consider all the important stuff state workers do, including food inspections, keeping our roadways functioning and providing vital daycare services. Let the governor know this is a cheap gimmick. Please note how he tried to get as much publicity for it as possible so he could "shake things up." The only ones shaken up are innocent bystanders!

— Paul Caron, Ventura

Not fair

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should be ashamed of himself, trying to get a budget passed on the backs of the people who work for him when he should be penalizing the members of the Senate and Assembly who cannot put aside their differences and pass a balanced budget.

Why are the average, middle-class workers being laid off or having their wages cut to the minimum wage in California?

Could the governor live on minimum wage? He needs to ask himself if he is being fair to the people who elected him. How will this help our economy when it will cause more homes to be foreclosed on and more families being put deeper into debt? It is high time that all the elected officials get their "ducks in a row" and do right by the people who elected them.

— Margaret & Marvin Long, Oxnard

Alternatives to cuts

I know it's hard to hang on in these difficult times. If we did not have a fire hose in Iraq gushing taxpayer dollars, mostly into the pockets of corporations like Halliburton and Blackwater, more money would be going to the United States.

Somehow, the legislators need to stand up for the people of California.

We cannot have a decent quality of life if our libraries and schools are cut, or our mental-health services. In the long run, these things and many others are cheaper to invest in, rather than cut.

If schools and libraries are cut, the next generation will suffer, along with business and our entire society.

If mental-health services are cut, those who can no longer avail themselves of the services would then inadvertently create problems not only for themselves, but for others. Then the police would even more often resort to incarcerating the mentally ill, creating even more overcrowded conditions in our jails, and subjecting the mentally ill to even more trauma and abuse.

Instead of cutting vital services such as these, legislators should take a bold and statesmanlike approach. Release prisoners who are incarcerated in the prison system for nonviolent crimes. Make white-collar criminals actually pay their debt with money and real and long-lasting community service. Put minor drug offenders in treatment, job training and education and make them perform community service. Make despoilers of the environment clean up the environment. Make all pay in real and useful ways, instead of subjecting them to dehumanizing training to be worse criminals by putting them in prison.

Make history. Stand up for yourselves and for all Californians, and set a positive example for the country and the world. Do not implement draconian budget cuts, whatever you do.

— Lynne Moore, Ventura

No excuse for crisis

It seems to me that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is punishing the wrong workers for the budget impasse! The ones he should target are the legislators, the Republicans, Democrats and Independents, if there are any.

I don't know if there is any incentive for them to get busy and get the budget passed, but if not, then their wages and all their benefits should be stopped with no clause to pay "back pay" until the budget is passed. It isn't as if the date that a budget is supposed to be passed is any big surprise. We go through something like this every year! If our representatives haven't learned just when the budget is due, then they should all be replaced as soon as possible.

— Roberta Orvis, Ventura