Court Opinion

ID: 9747179
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:00:31.886005+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:20.857035
License: Public Domain

CORRIGAN, J., Concurring.
I concur. I am in full agreement with the conclusion that the Legislature endorsed the Governor’s furlough plan in the budget legislation at issue. I also agree that, by reducing the appropriation for employee compensation, the Legislature rendered ineffective the pay provisions in the expired memoranda of understanding, which had been extended by statute. (Gov. Code, §§ 3517.6, subd. (b), 3517.8, subd. (a).)1 I take a slightly different view, however, on the meaning of “existing administration authority” in section 3.90, subdivision (a) of the revised 2008 Budget Act. (Stats. 2009, 3d Ex. Sess. 2009-2010, ch. 2, § 36, adding § 3.90 to the original 2008 Budget Act (Stats. 2008, ch. 268).) (See maj. opn., ante, at p. 1005.) Furthermore, I do not agree that section 19826, subdivision (b) bars the Department of Personnel Administration (DPA) from implementing furloughs. If it did, we would have a single-subject problem. The Legislature has retained considerable authority over matters of state employee compensation, but it is not free to disregard statutory restrictions and grant agencies new authority in a budget bill.
As explained in the majority opinion, it is clear from the context of the budget negotiations at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 that the Legislature adopted the savings realized by the Governor’s furlough plan. But it is important to note that when it took this action, the Legislature did not create new administrative authority out of whole cloth, or rely entirely on an executive order that was without legal support. DPA has statutory jurisdiction—i.e., “existing administration authority”—over the salaries and hours of *1053state employees. (§§ 19816, subd. (a), 19849; Gilb v. Chiang (2010) 186 Cal.App.4th 444, 465 [111 Cal.Rptr.3d 822]; Tirapelle v. Davis (1993) 20 Cal.App.4th 1317, 1322 [26 Cal.Rptr.2d 666].) For reasons stated in the majority opinion, the executive branch lacks unilateral authority to implement furloughs. However, when the Legislature authorized the furlough program, it did not enlarge DPA’s administrative functions. This is significant, because the single-subject rule requires that a budget bill deal only with the one subject of appropriations to support the annual budget. It may not constitutionally grant authority to a state agency that the agency does not otherwise possess, or amend existing statutory law.2 (Association for Retarded Citizens v. Department of Developmental Services (1985) 38 Cal.3d 384, 394 [211 Cal.Rptr. 758, 696 P.2d 150]; California Lab. Federation v. Occupational Safety & Health Stds. Bd. (1992) 5 Cal.App.4th 985, 991 [7 Cal.Rptr.2d 399]; Planned Parenthood Affiliates v. Swoap (1985) 173 Cal.App.3d 1187, 1199 [219 Cal.Rptr. 664]; see also Homan v. Gomez (1995) 37 Cal.App.4th 597, 599-600 [43 Cal.Rptr.2d 647].)
The majority holds that the trial court erred when it ruled .that the furlough plan did not implicate section 19826, subdivision (b), which provides that DPA “shall not establish, adjust, or recommend a salary range for any employees” represented by a union. However, if this statute prohibits the salary adjustments resulting from furloughs, then by removing that prohibition section 3.90 would indeed grant authority to DPA that it did not otherwise possess and would change existing statutory law, in violation of the single-subject rule as framed in the cases cited above. I am not persuaded by the majority’s declaration that existing statutes place no limitation on the Legislature’s reserved authority over state employee compensation. The single-subject rule says otherwise. Just as the Legislature was not free to disregard the statutes governing services for the developmentally disabled in Association for Retarded Citizens v. Department of Developmental Services, supra, 38 Cal.3d 384, it was not free in this case to disregard the statutes governing employee compensation. The Legislature’s authority to reduce appropriations for employee compensation is broad, but its authority to create new programs like the furlough plan is subject to existing statutory restrictions.
In my view, the trial court reached the correct conclusion on the applicability of section 19826, subdivision (b). This statute is concerned with salary ranges, and furloughs do not affect ranges. The ranges remain in place, and salaries return to their ordinary levels when the furlough program expires. *1054Certainly, furloughed employees consider the ordinary levels to represent their true salaries. Employees hired during a furlough period would not be informed that their salary was the reduced amount resulting from furloughs. Rather, they would naturally be told, and would understand, that their salary was the higher amount that would normally be paid. While furloughs result, as a practical matter, in a temporary salary reduction, they are not the same thing as the 5 percent salary cuts that the Greene court deemed a violation of section 19826, subdivision (b). (Department of Personnel Administration v. Superior Court (Greene) (1992) 5 Cal.App.4th 155, 174 [6 Cal.Rptr.2d 714].) Under the furlough program, salaries remain the same for purposes of benefits calculations, and indeed for determining the amount of paychecks in accordance with the reduction in hours worked. Accordingly, I would hold that section 19826, subdivision (b)’s bar against adjustment of salary ranges does not apply to furloughs.
For the reasons stated above, I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion.

Further statutory references are to the Government Code.

This does not mean agencies cannot gain the authority to take action in their sphere of operations as a result of budget provisions; of course that is a routine effect of appropriations or reductions in spending. It does mean that the Legislature cannot enlarge the scope of agency authority in a budget bill.