About 10,000 state employees in San Diego and Riverside counties are in danger of seeing their pay slashed to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour or losing their jobs by week's end as a result of a threat by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger aimed at spurring lawmakers to get off the dime and pass a budget.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday said he planned to issue an executive order as early as Thursday to roll back the salaries of nearly 200,000 state workers statewide and to axe 22,000 temporary and part-time positions because of the impasse between Democratic and Republican lawmakers over a spending plan for the fiscal year that is already four weeks old.

"Thursday marks the first day of the state pay period, and Governor Schwarzenegger will use his executive authority on Thursday to prevent a cash crisis," said Aaron McLear, a spokesman for the governor.

Democrats want to help close an estimated $15.2 billion gap between anticipated revenues and proposed expenditures by raising taxes on the wealthiest Californians to bring in $8.2 billion, while the GOP is refusing to support any new taxes. The Democrats control both houses in Sacramento, but because a two-thirds vote is required for budget adoption, they must win the support of at least a handful of Republicans.

Yvonne Walker, president of Service Employees International Union Local 1000 in Sacramento, which represents 95,000 state workers, said in a telephone interview Monday that pay cuts likely won't hit state workers immediately because state Controller John Chiang has said he will defy the governor. Chiang, who is independently elected by all Californians, has the authority to disburse paychecks to state employees.

However, Walker said a large number of key temporary and part-time employees could lose their positions immediately. That could prove disastrous for some state services, she said. For example, almost half the employees at Department of Motor Vehicles offices are in that category, and people could find themselves in longer lines when they renew their driver's licenses.

Area residents also would notice a difference when visiting already busy state parks and beaches, which are run in part by temporary workers, said Walker, an Oceanside High School graduate.

State employees also work as agriculture inspectors, highway maintenance workers and nurses, and they serve the public at unemployment offices, fish hatcheries and mental hospitals, said Jim Zamora, a spokesman for the employees union in Sacramento.

Walker said, "It's unfortunate that, in the middle of a crisis, they're playing games. … Why are you going to do that when you're not going to solve the budget crisis -- when you're not going to come close to making one dent in it?"

University professors, on the other hand, won't be losing jobs or seeing their pay cut because they are not covered by the governor's executive authority, said Claudia Keith, a spokeswoman for the California State University system in Long Beach.

In a statement, California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed said, "We are working to ensure that CSU employees will receive their regular paychecks and can expect their normal compensation until a new budget is signed."

But Keith said the system is trying to do its part to ease the pressure on state coffers by paying salaries out of student fees exclusively until a budget is passed.

As for ordering an across-the-board cut in pay to those who would be covered by an executive order, the governor would be within his legal authority to call for such a rollback, said Arnold Rosenberg, professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.

Those who work overtime must be paid their full salary and overtime pay immediately under federal law, said Rosenberg, a former labor lawyer. But if they work 40 hours, they can be paid the federal minimum wage now -- as long as the cumulative additional pay they are owed is delivered to them when a budget is passed.

"And I assume that they have to be paid with interest," he said.

Whatever the details, the prospect doesn't sound good to Mike Byron, a Palomar College political science professor whose wife is a state social worker.

"I think maybe the governor and Legislature should try minimum wage for a while," Byron said. "I understand what he's doing. I just wish he would pick on somebody else."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.