(Sacramento, CA) – Bill A. Lloyd, President of the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) California released the following statement after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s State of the State Address today:

“After a long and painful recession, 2010 is the year that we must start rebuilding our state and investing in our future.  We applaud the Governor’s commitment to protecting children’s education, and urge him to commit to protecting children’s health and welfare as well.

“The Governor is right: jobs are indeed Californians’ top priority right now.  That’s why we continue to be puzzled by his threats to cut hundreds of thousands of jobs in home care and other vital human services, cuts that will lengthen California’s downturn, slow our recovery, and raise our unemployment rate to 14.2%.

“It’s unfortunate that instead of working to ensure all California families have the opportunity to earn retirement security, the Governor has chosen to scapegoat public employees using fuzzy math and scare tactics.

“Finally, the Governor pointed to the need to reform California’s tax system. We couldn’t agree more with the need. We won’t be able to invest in California, rebuild our middle class, and strengthen our schools, our colleges, our healthcare, our economy, and the public services we all rely on until everyone – including the corporate special interests who have been the only winners in the past several budgets – pay their fair share at last.”


SEIU California is a coalition of over 700,000 janitors, social workers, security officers, home care workers, school and university employees, healthcare workers, and city, county and state employees represented by SEIU local unions throughout California. We come together to build a better California by fighting to pass policies and elect candidates that benefit working families and advance the issues we care about: affordable healthcare, good wages, retirement security for all, a healthy environment, good schools and universities, and stronger communities. We believe that by working together we can build a California where working families can thrive again.