Rare evidence of common sense

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.

Some members of the California Citizens Compensation Commission even said the salaries of the state's elected officials should be reduced. Can you imagine how that idea struck our representatives in the Capitol?

"What? Cut my pay? Sure, I've helped create a $10 billion budget deficit and ducked health care reform, ignored the water storage crisis and, yes, I made our state freeways nothing more than parking lots, and I suppose our bridges and levees are crumbling, but why hold me accountable?"

Our legislators are used to getting rewarded for doing nothing, at least as far as it concerns the taxpayers. The only people lawmakers have to worry about pleasing are the special interests. Keep them happy, and they are home free, thanks to a redistricting system that guarantees their re-election.

But now the pay commission is getting a little feisty, and speaking very bluntly about legislators. "We don't have a budget and they're not working any overtime to get it done," Commissioner Kathy Sands told the Sacramento Bee. "People have said that to me. They're not doing their job." She says cut their pay.

Sands should be nominated for the California Common Sense Award. Then there's Commissioner Charles Murray, who chairs the pay group. With the growing state budget deficit, "Everybody has to take a cut," he told the newspaper. Let's give him a Common Sense Award, too.

But don't think the bureaucrats would go quietly on this issue. The lawyer for the state Department of Personnel Administration said the commissioner could cut salaries, but the law requires they study the issue first.

Gee, that will be a tough task. You could do a salary study for the Legislature on the back of a napkin:

-- Is the state better off than 10 years ago? No.

-- Has the Legislature been more productive than 10 years ago? No.

-- Are the taxpayers getting their money's worth? No.

-- Should legislative pay be reduced? Yes.

There you have it -- a $500,000 salary study for the price of today's newspaper. You can send me the Taxpayer Protection Award in the overnight mail for that suggestion. On second thought, put it on the Greyhound and I'll pick it up at the bus station near my office.

Legislators are paid $116,208 a year, with the legislative leaders getting more. But here's the dirty little secret: They get $179 a day extra in tax-free per-diem pay when in session. You and I would have to pay taxes on that money if our employers paid us extra, but the Legislature cut a deal with Congress to have the per-diem pay exempted from taxes.

You can chalk that up to one incompetent group taking care of another.

I like the direction the pay commission is going. I proposed that legislators not get paid if they don't show tangible results from the legislative session. That means passing a budget on time, and solving one or two of the biggest issues facing California.

Under my plan, they wouldn't have been paid for at least the past five years.

The politics of the pay commission is an interesting one. The Sacramento Bee reported that two commission members, appointed by former Gov. Gray Davis, said they oppose salary reductions. That was the kind of thinking that ran up huge deficits and got Davis recalled in 2003.

The commission's recommendations, if formally approved, would not go into effect until December.

Right now, commissioners are talking about freezing legislators' pay and not reducing it. But that could change if Sands and Murray convince other commissioners to go along with their pay-cut plan.

The Legislature is asking cities, counties, school districts and universities to take less money next year to help close the budget deficit. Our lawmakers should be willing to step up and have their pay cut to show that everyone is being treated equally in these difficult times.

That would be a different way of doing business in the Capitol. That's why pay commission members Kathy Sands and Charles Murray showed extraordinary courage in proposing to cut lawmakers' pay.

They showed they have common sense, even if everyone else in Sacramento doesn't.

(Jim Boren is The Fresno Bee's editorial-page editor. E-mail him at jboren(at)fresnobee.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)