Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, chairman of the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee and chairman of the Joint Committee on Emergency Services and Homeland Security, on Thursday expressed sympathy for the 22,000 state employees who will lose their jobs and the state workers who will have their wages cut to the federal minimum wage under the governor’s executive order.

“As the chair of the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee, I am keenly aware of the heartbreak and devastation many California families face from the threat of foreclosures. Some of them could be state employees. This might be enough to push them over the edge,” Nava said. “In Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, over 600 part-time state workers will be laid off because of the governor’s order. They have been protecting the quality and purity of our food, enforcing consumer protection laws, helping the disabled and our veterans. Statewide, 1,500 doctors and dentists who care for the disabled, veterans and staffing public health departments will have their pay slashed.

“This is no way to keep the California dream alive.”

John Mann is a spokesman for Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara.