Posted on 05/20/2009 1:27:21 PM PDT by freespirited
A state panel this morning slashed the salaries of elected state officials by 18% -- a day after voters rejected a plan by the governor and Legislature to address the budget crisis.
Citing pay cuts and layoffs being imposed on rank-and-file state workers, the California Citizens Compensation Commission approved the reduction for the governor, legislators and other state officials elected next year.
"I think they should share in the sacrifices that everyone else has had to encounter," said Commissioner Kathy Sands, a former Auburn mayor, after the panel's 5-1 vote at a meeting in Burbank.
The commission had wanted to decrease current officials' pay, but the panel's attorney said California law does not allow that.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I live in California and can say this: term limits no thanks to your "competent" legislators. Term limits were rammed down their poor throats after decades of abuse, arrogance, criminal behavior and incompetence.
How old are you, anyway?
Sorry, but I am confident that most reders without an agenda here understood the comparison (not an analogy) precisely.
The automakers committed suice, led by their overpaid executives who agreed to outrageous unsustainable future benefits to the unions, so long as they were taking their checks home, for millions.
They laughed all the way to the Barbados.
You didn't just arrive from Mars, did you?
Fascinating and creative straw man.
I don't recall saying, or even suggesting, that the "administration", (whatever that is), should be immune from salary reductions.
It sure as hell is.
The "California Citizens Compensation Commission" is it? Well, this one will bear looking into. If it's anything like all of the other Boards, Committees, and Commissions, they are nothing more than a collection of sycophants who are politically well connected (and who operate at the pleasure of the political leadership, usually of the Rat persuasion).
I know. The question was not to you.
... and can say this: term limits no thanks to your "competent" legislators.
I didn't say our legislators were good or competent. I said that reducing their salaries will lead to new legislators being less competent and more corrupt.
How old are you, anyway?
Old enough to have voted for Gerald Ford. What does that have to do with anything?
Not in the presidential primary, I hope. :)
Nothing earthshaking.
Just the dumb observation that "those who do not remember [or experienced] the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them."
I have no agenda other than good government. A balance of power is an essential element of that.
Is it possible to discuss that without questioning my age, accusing me of having an agenda, and asking if I’m from Mars?
I may be having a crisis of imagination, but I can't envision (in California, anyway) a more ignorant, arrogant, incompetent and corrupt bunch than the present legislature.
Lol. You are correct.
I choose not to place a label like that on all 120 of them. Sure, some might fit that definition, almost all fo them Democrats. But there are quite a few that are the only thing that has been standing up against even more destructive legislation. I support those folks wholeheartedly.
http://www.dpa.ca.gov/salaries/elected/california-citizens-compensation-commission.htm
California Citizens Compensation Commission
Family considerations would not allow me to run for office.
But yes — I find the salary/perks to be inadequate, given alternatives.
Sure.
Let's start with the obvious.
Apparently, for you, the balance of power today is perfect. Why is it that the legislature can't do its job?
(Aside from the fact that there is no real and permanent penalty for that failure? Year after year?)
As do I.
But the object of the exercise is the reality of competent government, not the frustration of ineffective "loyal opposition."
If the minority of competents can't devise a way to be effective, the system fails.
Good intentions are not enough.
Yes, I can easily make a blanket condemnation. The legislature exists to perform a necessary function, and it's not happening.
What are you referring to when you say “do their job”?
Do you mean balancing the budget?
If so, I will point out that it is the Governor’s responsibility to propose the budget and to approve the budget
and he is given line-item-veto power to accomplish it.
Andy Hopwood, who was at the time the Chairman of the Los Angeles County Republican Central Committee, used to be on that commission. He ALWAYS voted in favor of pay raises for Willie Brown and company. A Riordan Republican.
Riordan ain't a Republican! ;-)
This decade? The LAO chose their words carefully, it would appear.
In 1998, Hopwood and his cohorts gave the state's elected officials an eye-popping 34% raise. They followed that up with another 15% raise in 1999.
http://digital.library.ucla.edu/websites/2000_999_037/9903/032199.html
Actually, “decade” was my word. I think the base year mentioned was 2000.
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