Lawmakers don’t feel your pain

Imagine that the company you worked for was running massively in the red, and all employees were told that, to stay in business, everyone must take a pay cut. Now imagine the company's board of directors, already paid more than the bosses of all other companies, refused to cut their own pay.

Outrage and resentment might be appropriate responses. Welcome to California government.

Last week the panel of appointed bureaucrats who decide how much state elected officials get paid, voted 4-1 to freezesalaries for state legislators, the governor and other constitutional officers. That might seem prudent considering the state's $15 billion budget deficit.

But considering the California Citizens Compensation Commission was asked by Commissioner Charles Murray to reduce officials' pay, there's less to admire. Considering the distinct possibility that many state employees may lose their jobs, not merely suffer pay cuts, the vote seems arrogant and elitist. We say again, welcome to California government.

Let's be clear. Downsizing our bloated government is long overdue. It's an affront to taxpayers that, even when facing a huge deficit, the state continues hiring more employees. The Sacramento Bee reports that permanent, full-time state workers increased 5.6 percent, to 206,000 from 195,000, since Jan. 1, 2007.

Clearly, the mentality that approves new hires even while the operation sinks in red ink is closely linked to the thinking that people at the helm shouldn't suffer pay cuts. Both attitudes reflect fiscal irresponsibility and selfishness. Taxpayers paying the bill should be outraged and resentful.

Certainly, cutting the nation's highest legislative pay 10 percent, as commissioners briefly considered, is peanuts when dealing with a $15 billion deficit. But at a minimal pay scale of $116,208 a year for 120 legislators and 13 other constitutional officers, it's a hefty helping of peanuts.

Earlier, the Legislature itself had an opportunity to block members' pay raises in a bill authored by Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria. Predictably, that failed. Maldonado testified in vain before the commission urging it to do what the Legislature refused to do.

"[I]t proved to me once again that a majority of my colleagues act only in their own best interest and hold themselves to a different standard," Maldonado said.

When state layoffs result in reduced services, and taxes are increased to balance the budget, we urge taxpayers to remember who was at the helm and whose interest they were looking out for.