California, Texas and payroll of workers of the State

By David Mildenberg and James Nash

California prison guards are two times more than their counterparts in Texas $ — 71 000 per year, compared to $31. The difference is true for workers of the State in General: while in 2009, the average worker of the private sector in California is 12.5% more than in Texas, the disparity between the workers of the State was 25.2%, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce of. The difference highlights the benefits - and the taxpayer - work in a friendly union of State and may help explain why California has budgetary problems more intractable than Texas. Although Texas has a budget deficit of $ 4.3 billion this year, it has the credit rating of Standard & Poor (MHP) second. California has the lowest rating of any State and is struggling to fill a $ 15.4 billion deficit this year.

The difference in pay of State workers can be explained in part by cost of living California, which is almost 15% higher than in Texas. Yet the power of collective bargaining is even more important, said Oran McMichael, an organizer of long date labor in Texas. Other than the Court and the legislative function, unions represent 85% of all workers in the State of California, said Lynelle Jolley, a spokesman for the staff Administration Dept. the State then that Texas does not have the figures for its employees, trade unions, the proportion is probably less than 10 percent, said State Auditor John keel.

Higher wages mean higher pensions. Retired from the Texas teachers get an average of $18,372 per year, compared to $25,440 for California teachers. Allocation average for the employees of the former State Texas rose 3.9% in the five years through fiscal year 2010; in California he rose 32 percent from 2004 to 2009, according to larger pension in both States.

The contrasting experiences of Texas and California can provide lessons for States such as Ohio, New Jersey and Wisconsin, where Republican Governors have placed emphasis on costs down employment taxes while balancing the budgets of curb. State workers in California and Texas are targeted for cuts, even if the pressure is more intense in the former. Employees state he did not receive an overall increase from 2009 and are now required to take an unpaid day off the coast of every month, explains Jolley.

The salary increase, however, is a more consistent workforce. Turnover rate of 10 percent of the California prison guards is about half the level that it is in Texas. "Our people see their work in a career, not just as something to have until something better comes along," says Ryan Sherman, a spokesman for the California Assn. Correctional of agents of peace in Sacramento.

The bottom line: In California, where more than civil servants are covered by the trade unions, made wages higher than in Texas and a pension burden.

Mildenberg is a reporter for Bloomberg News. Nash is a reporter for Bloomberg News.

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Syria lifts State of emergency

The Syria Government approved the lifting of the State of the country almost 50 years of emergency Tuesday to respond to a request of key anti-government protesters, but opposition leaders dismissed as an attempt by President Bashar al-Assad to claim reforms, but maintain its harsh rule.

The blunt answer suggested month uprising could enter into a more volatile phase: demonstrators now more to seek the eviction of Assad and his regime of warning that the demonstrations must now end.

"We want freedom!" chanted thousands of people in the South of the city of Dara and the coastal town of Banias, according to witnesses.

A prominent Syrian writer Yassin Haj Saleh, who has spent 16 years in prison for his pro-democracy links with a group, claimed that assad was looking for "a maneuver to buy time" by removing the State of emergency, which gives authorities almost infinities powers of surveillance and arrest.

People perform prayers during a protest in the Syrian city of Homs Monday, before the security forces attacked demonstrators in a raid before dawn Tuesday. (Reuters)

"They basically tell people, ' we've completed your applications, so go home and if you do we break your head,"' he told Associated Press by telephone from Beirut. "" "". But in reality, nothing will change. ?

A leader of prominent opposition strengthen these doubts, was arrested during the night, according to a Syrian human rights group.

Announced the end of the State of emergency, reviled in many signaling came in a few hours after a demonstration of force by the authorities.

Security forces stormed a square in the third largest city of the Syria. Then officials issued a severe warning to national television for protesters to pull back.

The message of the ultimatum-style seems to show that ending emergency laws will not facilitate blows in hard against opponents. Assad regime marked the protest movement, as an "armed insurrection" and a power grab by Islamic extremists - of descriptions that could give authorities coverage continue repression.

Assad last week told his cabinet to remove the State of emergency - in place since his party Baath took power in March 1963 - but he added that such an approach would demonstrators no more reason to take the streets. This could give additional Assad a pretext to move any other marches or rallies.

In this image of citizen journalism, acquired by the AP and taken Monday, Syrian pray the clock on-site in the centre of Homs in Syria. Syrian security later fired tear gas and live ammunition and hundreds of demonstrators hostile to the Government took a major place of Homs, witnesses and activists said. (Associated Press)

Official Syria SANA News Agency, said the cabinet also approved abolishing the Court of State security, which has managed trials of political prisoners and has approved a new law authorizing the right to peaceful protests of scene with the permission of the Ministry of the Interior. Changes need Parliament's approval, but no objection is expected at its next session scheduled for May 2.

"Would abrogate the emergency law do little to limit the power of the various security agencies because that the Syria has other laws that guarantee members of the immunity of the secret police for virtually any crime committed in the exercise of their functions""," said Mohamad Bazzi, a regional expert of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Most of the people of the Syria $ 23 million is born or grew up under the State of emergency which, among other things, puts a strict control on the media, allows listening on telecommunications and permits warrantless arrests.

The regime had claimed the reason for the State of emergency is due to the technical state of war with arch enemy Israel, but rights groups and others say that it was used primarily as the backbone of the authoritarian system.

Openings Tuesday came shortly after the Ministry of the Interior issued a worrying warning to the nation to stop to take part in demonstrations or the sit-in. In a statement broadcast on Syrian television, the Ministry said that all laws will be implemented to protect the security of the people and the stability of the country.

Hours earlier, security forces fired on demonstrators hostile to put Government stage a sit-in in a square in the Centre of the city of Homs, chasing the streets for hours.

Witnesses said at least one person was killed and several others injured.

"They fired on everything, there was smoke everywhere in the world," activist Homs told the AP by telephone, asking that his name will not be used because he feared for his personal safety. "I saw people on the ground, some shot at their feet, some in the stomach."

Hundreds of people gathered Monday instead of the clock, in the centre of Homs providing mattresses, food and water on the site of the impasse of the Egypt-style. They are committed to stay until President Bashar al-Assad is discarded - a long month uprising brazen escalation against the authoritarian regime of the country.

At least 200 people were killed in the last month, security forces have launched a deadly crackdown on the protest movement, say human rights groups. The Government coupled dry promises of reform with brutal tactics to suppress the unrest, using widely despised security forces and liberate the uninterrupted thugs called shabiha.

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