Sacramento, Calif. ? California’s generous offering of holidays for state workers – the equivalent of nearly three work weeks – is among the items Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking to trim to help counter a mounting budget deficit.

Lincoln’s Birthday and Columbus Day would get the ax under a proposal the governor’s administration estimates will save $114 million during this fiscal year and the next one starting in July.

Union leaders are resisting the move, but California isn’t the only state looking to save money by cutting back on paid days off.

New Jersey passed a benefit-cutting bill in September that included eliminating Lincoln’s Birthday as a state paid holiday amid a budget deficit projected to reach $1.2 billion in the current fiscal year. Gov. Jon Corzine also stopped giving employees the day after Thanksgiving as a paid day off.

Utah, which is experimenting with a four-day work week, eliminated Columbus Day as a paid holiday.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average number of paid holidays for state and local government employees nationwide is 11 days a year. The average private-sector employee receives eight paid holidays.