Gov. Jerry Brown promised painful cuts to balance the state's budget but chatty state employees may have been caught off guard by the latest announcement.
Brown proclaimed Tuesday that he is cutting the chord on 48,000 state issued cell phones. The governor said he was shocked to find out California taxpayers are paying for 96,000 cell phones.
Turning about half of those phones off permanently will save the state about $20 million.
While $20 million is a lot of money, Brown still needs to come up with clever ways to cut another $25 billion out of the state's budget.
Brown plans to nickel and dime whatever he can to get him closer to the goal, regardless of how small the cuts seem. Next on his list is reducing the number of light-duty vehicles used by state employees.
About 13,600 cars and vans are going to have to "re-justified" in Brown's budget. Potential cuts will not impact public safety agencies.
