Buzz,

Actually I never received the money for my initial training for the same reason. Although you can get that money back (it wasn't much based on training pay back then) because you were based in ATL and you were actually working in ATL (during training) AND Delta was GA based they were required to with hold GA state taxes. You could have gotten that money back by filing a GA non-resident tax return. This CA thing is different because I don't live or work (picking up an airplane that takes a couple of hours in LAX is not working in LAX). Delta is not a CA based company. This is the first time it's happened to me (I was an Engineer in LAX as a new hire and didn't have to put up with this).