By JIM BOREN, Fresno Bee

This is not a joke. There really are people in the California state government with common sense. I had to look quite awhile to find them, but then a little-known state commission surfaced to say that in this bad economy, it's no time to give the state legislature or governor a pay raise.That's a no-brainer for most of us, but the political world often works upside down.

No wonder identity theft is the fastest-growing crime. Our common sense hasn't caught up with our technology.We let anyone have our Social Security and driver's-license numbers. We might as well leave our wallets on a store counter and walk away. A thief with a computer can quickly empty our bank accounts.

For most of the past two decades, the California Legislature has been under intense criticism for its inability to get anything done. Lawmakers can't get a budget out on time, and they have no idea on how to reach consensus on the biggest issues facing California.

I heard California Assemblyman George Plescia on the radio the other morning explaining his legislation to allow employees to take their dogs to work on June 20.Now I know why fellow assemblyman Mike Villines, R-Clovis, was able to put together the votes two years ago to boot Plescia, R-LaJolla, out of the minority leader's job.

There's another Assembly speaker from Los Angeles about to take office and those of us out here in California's heartland wonder if state government will continue to cater to the Golden State's biggest cities at the expense of the rest of the state.

In the dreadful days of the Depression, the administration of Franklin Roosevelt tried something new: a massive public-works program designed to put Americans back to work while building the infrastructure the nation desperately needed. The Works Progress Administration was the largest single element of the New Deal -- and it's an idea whose time has come again.

One of the reasons California is in another financial mess is that the state's residents get the same old rhetoric from the Democrats and Republicans in Sacramento. There's a $16 billion budget deficit, yet both parties continue to protect their political benefactors as if the state has a $16 billion surplus.

Now that the term-limits scam has blown up in California lawmakers' faces, maybe they should try reforming something that would improve the Legislature.

We're on the verge of holding the first of three statewide elections in California this year, and it's beginning to look like the politicians should have left the election schedule alone.

You've got to hand it to Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Symantec and the other high-tech companies for how they have trained their customers to beg for service when their products break down.