California elected officials' pay to be cut 18%

Sounds like you are opposed to representative government then. It can't effectively exist under your option.

No. I believe in public service. Not cradle to grave enrichment for the ruling class.

gov’t employees pay should be cut. I get so sick of their beaching........”If I was getting what my civilian counterparts were making......” so go get what they are making, dumbhead, they are also working for it instead of sitting on their fat asses blowing people off

This is a power play to weaken ONE branch of government. It stinks.

If that were the case the correct remedy would be to weaken the other branch (cut them too).

I agree ..... Change the law.

Cut their pay and have them work from their homes. They should be forced to live and work in the districts where they were elected.

They do not need lavish offices. They should all cast their votes via the Internet.

Start firing state workers .... starting at the top.

I gauge compensation based on competition with private industry in California.

With this move, I think salaries are being decreased below the level of competence adequate to perform the job.

That concerns me.

Who, in your mind, should set their salaries based on “contribution”?

How do you expect to attract competent legislators? Who would want the job.

I'd take it, and I know many who others who would. And I would be willing to take a qualifying test to do it (unlike many many incumbents).

I could get a lobotomy and still outperform the current Dimwit majority leader half asleep.

Have a uniform qualifying test, if it's such a critical issue.
You know making change, computing what 2/3 is, how many planets are there and the ever challenging --- English language.

There is some rationale for it; the idea being that an official in political disfavor cannot be hounded out of office by impoverishment, only to have the more acceptable successor get a big windfall.

That is incredible to the point of stupidity. How many legislatures will cut everyone's salary to get rid of one incompetent or, as in California's case one honest productive legislator?

So, you’ll be filing your papers for the next election, then?

If that were the case the correct remedy would be to weaken the other branch (cut them too).

To $1.00? Yeah, that will work. /s

See also post #47. 1600 state employees make in excess of $200,000. Those making more than $100,000 are too many to count (thousands). IMO, people should be paid a competitive wage for the work they do and fired/recalled if they don't perform the duty.

It's looking like their constituents are increasingly jobless - why shouldn't they be compassionate and take a pay cut in solidarity?

Salinas police face layoffs, job freezes

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Disney eliminates about 1,900 jobs at its domestic theme parks

Contra Costa County lays off 120

California lost 42,000 industrial jobs according to Industrial Director - April 7, 2009 San Francisco Art Institute laying off 25% of faculty

California jobless rate hit 11.2% in March

Union approves cutting 90 Chronicle driver jobs

SAG to lay off 8% of its employees

California Pacific Medical Center to slash 200 jobs, $30M in expense

Rialto trustees agree to cut 83 teacher positions next year

School district cuts more than 50 jobs

Riverside County officials propose cutting 1000 jobs - including public safety

Board votes to lay off 27 non-teach school staff

Deepening woes for the Imperial Valley

Fremont to lay off 20 workers

Sylvan school district readies layoff notices

Snowline rescinds two-thirds of initial layoffs

Stockton to issue 90 layoff notices

Proposed San Jose budget would lay off 149 employees, cut library hours

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Santa Paula proposes 12 percent staff cut

Dellums outlines Oakland budget cuts LA council OKs staff to start layoff process

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The Onion stopping its editions in SF, LA

Union-Tribune cuts 192 positions

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Chino Valley district finalizes teacher layoffs

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114 Coachella Valley Unified teachers to be laid off,/p>

West County school district lays off 124 teachers

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The axman cometh Maricopa cutting jobs, programs to balance budget

Over 100 teachers part of new CVUSD cuts

San Joaquin County may lay off 98 employees

Proposed hiring freeze for LA city police, fire

Anaheim City lists 120 facing layoff, terminations

95 teachers to receive pink slips in Lucia Mar Unified School District

Mt. Diablo school board votes to lay off more than 400 teachers

Val Verde school board approves 120 layoffs

More than 50 Newark teachers to lose jobs

Moreno Valley Unified lays off 135 teachers

Romoland plans to lay off 14 teachers, but also hopes to rehire them later

Beaumont, Banning, Yucaipa-Calimesa school districts finalize layoffs

More than 100 Chico teachers to get layoff notices

249 valley teachers find themselves jobless

Governor's budget cuts schools, borrows billions

Paso Robles school district employees given pink slips, athletic programs cut

Murieta Valley Unified eliminates 28 positions,p> Sacramento area school districts consider second round of layoffs

Santa Cruz trustees approve final teacher layoffs

Timber giant cuts jobs

< a href="http://www.srpressgazette.com/news/employees-7113-johnson-hard.html"/>Clerk's Office laying off 10 employees

Paradise Unified lays off 21

With union deal off, Newsom says 1000 jobs cut

Ax falls on 10 Lathop municipal employees

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Budget proposal calls for cuts, layoffs in Redondo Beach

Jurupa school district lays off 85 employees, cuts bus drivers hours

50 Eureka teachers appeal layoff notices

No. I believe in public service. Not cradle to grave enrichment for the ruling class.

We don't have "cradle to grave" legislators -- we have term limits.

Do you even live in California?

IMO, people should be paid a competitive wage for the work they do and fired/recalled if they don't perform the duty.

Ahh. Yeah. How's that working out so far?

Who’s the one dissenting vote?

Tuesday's pay cut was opposed by Commissioner William Feyling, executive director for Carpenters 46 Northern California Counties Conference Board, who has argued for a 5% reduction.

I smell the rotting flesh of a self-serving Union or union related business...

OK Ahnold, show us you're serious.
Fire the sucker!
That's William Feyling, in case you forgot...

I want to be represented in the legislature by someone competent, not the bottom of the barrel ego-monger. Drop the salaries below competitive wages and you'll get the latter, while leaving legislators more susceptible to corruption and ceding their responsibilities to an overbearing executive branch and lobbyists.

Sorry, I ain't buying that.
If that argument were rational, we would be producing the most efficient cars in the world at the lowest price. How is that working out?

And then the obvious... how about the financial giants who are no longer with us whose executives made tens of million annually? How did that work out?

Lets not get silly here.

I’m not getting your analogy, at all. There is no comparison to automakers who have been regulated out of business.

If they aren't doing their job, there is a remedy: they can be recalled.

Now that's pure genius!
They can only be recalled by the idiots who elected them in the first place, even thought their stupidity and/or criminal inclinations affect the entire state.

Give me the comparable parallel in the private sector, please.

This is a power play to weaken ONE branch of government. It stinks.

The buck stops with the legislature. Their performance also stinks. The measure of their competence is what we have experienced the last 15 years

Time for some stable cleaning...

As for weakening only one branch, you always have the State Supreme Court nullifying the will of the people. I'm sure you're Ok with that, too.

So, you’ll be filing your papers for the next election, then?

Only if we get to the comical state where no competent citizen (by your definition) would want the job.

I should be a shoo-in...

Care to join me?
Or is 90+k a year an insult to your abilities? Think of free car, gasoline and per diem in addition to that.
Plus you get to sermonize with official authority. Can't beat that!

I want them all cut.

So, what’s your solution? Mine is to work to elect competent, independent, conservative legislators.

The only way to change things is to change the laws and hold the administration accountable.

I see the likelihood of that happening even less if you start slashing the pay of legislators to below $100,000 (w/ no pension) while offering $300,000 salaries (with massive pensions) to those in the administration.