On a more positive note, The California Citizens Compensation Commission today cut the salaries of elected officials by 18%.
http://cbs13.com/local/elected...als.pay.2.1014366.html
"Commission Slashes State Elected Officials Pay 18%SACRAMENTO (CBS13/AP) ?
A California commission voted Wednesday to slash the pay of the Legislature and other state elected officials by 18 percent, a day after voters offered their own rebuke by rejecting five budget-related measures drafted by lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The California Citizens Compensation Commission, meeting in Burbank, voted 5-1 to impose the pay cuts and said it was seeking a legal opinion that would allow the reductions to take effect in the middle of the officials' terms. Under current law, the pay cuts would be imposed between December 2010 and the end of 2012, meaning lawmakers and officeholders would finish their terms without ever seeing a smaller paycheck.
The vote came three weeks after the seven-member commission, with three vacancies, deadlocked on a motion to cut the salaries 10 percent. Schwarzenegger filled the empty seats on the panel later that day.
With the pay cut, salaries of rank-and-file lawmakers would fall from $116,028 a year to $95,143. The legislative leaders' salaries will go from $133,639 to $109,584.
Lawmakers can still get per diem payments for daily expenses, which can add $35,000 a year to their income.
State elected officials and lawmakers are the highest-paid in the country, with two exceptions. Only the state treasurer and superintendent of public instruction have counterparts in other states who are paid more, according to the commission.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger does not accept the state salary of $212,179, and 23 lawmakers take less than full salaries.
Schwarzenegger praised the commission's vote, which came a day after voters approved Proposition 1F. The measure prohibits state elected officials from receiving pay raises during years when the state runs a deficit.
"The people of California have spoken loud and clear," the Republican governor said in a statement. "They want the state to live within its means and do not want any more government waste or pay raises for California's elected officials."
Commission chairman Charles Murray, president of a Los Angeles-area insurance company, said voters' rejection of the budget measures on Tuesday figured in the panel's decision to impose a bigger pay cut.
"It indicated to us that this deficit issue is going to go on for more than a year, and since there's currently a lead time to implement a pay cut, we felt it would be better to give a large pay cut now and proceed on as time goes on," he said in an interview.
He said the commission has asked the Department of Personnel Administration's counsel how it could appeal an earlier opinion that the pay cuts cannot take effect in the middle of an officials' term.
"We got a ruling back from the DPA counsel we don't agree with," Murray said.
If the cuts cannot be implemented midterm, they would not take effect until December 2010 for the 100 members of the Legislature who will be elected or re-elected next year, until January 2011 for eight statewide elected officials and four members of a tax-collecting board and until December 2012 for 20 members of the state Senate.
Murray said the pay cuts would save $2.7 million a year when fully implemented. Commissioners plan to meet again June 17 to consider if elected officials' benefits are out of line.
The commission was created as part of a political reform measure approved by voters in 1990. Its members are appointed by the governor and are required to meet at least once a year to consider adjustments in state elected officials' salaries and benefits.
It has frozen all salaries five times, including last year, but until now had never voted to cut officials' pay.
In addition to lawmakers, the commission sets compensation for the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, controller, insurance commissioner, superintendent of public instruction and state Board of Equalization.
The next thing that needs to be cut, or at least modified, is the way per diem is calculated and paid. Several lawmakers live near enough to Sacramento that they live in their own house and drive to work in the Capital...and still draw HUGE per diem checks.
They should get no more than the lowest paid Cal-Trans worker gets if he has to work out of town. (oldsmoboat can probably fill in those numbers, but it ain't much.) And NO fucking car allowances.