Do California legislators think the state pays its bills with
Monopoly money? Do they think cash grows on trees?
Do California legislators think the state pays its bills with Monopoly money? Do they think cash grows on trees?
Reports that legislators recently gave every State Senate employee a 5 percent pay hike and that spending on legislative staff payroll is soaring are nothing short of stunning.
While Gilroy ponders radical cuts to its recreation programs and police and fire services due to the state budget crisis, just a handful of state legislators are offering to take a pay cut.
Even as the Morgan Hill Unified School District issued layoff notices to 111.5 teachers due to slashing state education cuts, legislative aides – many of whom earn six-figure salaries paid for with tax dollars – were receiving hefty salary increases.
Legislators may not be able to see the link between increasing spending and increasing budget woes, but voters certainly can.
Legislators may not be able to connect the dots between cuts in education and failure to cut Senate and Assembly spending, but voters most assuredly do.
Outrageous doesn’t even begin to describe legislators’ lack of fiscal self-control.
Head-in-the-sand merely scratches the surface of the budget crisis blindness exhibited by State Senators and Assembly members.
Disgraceful is just the start of the list of adjectives that leap to mind when attempting to characterize the lack of leadership demonstrated in Sacramento.
It should be no wonder, then, that Californians’ confidence in the ability of state leaders to fix the $35 billion budget gap is lower than a pregnant snake’s belly in a wagon rut.
The recently released Field Poll showed that 42 percent of Californians surveyed have “not much confidence” that the state legislature would do the right thing to solve the budget crisis. And depressingly few – 7 percent – report that they have “great confidence” in their state legislators.
We urge state legislators and South Valley voters to remember Secretary of State Colin Powell’s wise words: “Leadership is solving problems.”
The state of California is facing an urgent $35 billion problem. Legislators’ behavior – spending more money on their staffs while forcing others to suffer slashing funding cuts – should be an embarrassment and a disgrace.
We urge South Valley residents to communicate in blunt terms with state representatives and Gov. Gray Davis about their mishandling of the state budget crisis. And if our elected representatives don’t dramatically improve – immediately – voters have a duty to remember that when legislators seek re-election.
If legislators don’t start leading by example, refuse to demonstrate that they understand that actions speak louder than words, and can’t bear to inflict the same budgetary pain on themselves and their staffs that they’re forcing the rest of California to endure, they’ll leave California voters with no other choice: to give the bunch of ’em the boot at the voting booth.
Contact state leaders
Gov. Gray Davis, D, State Capitol Building, Sacramento, CA 95814; Phone: (916) 445-2841; Fax: (916) 445-4633; e-mail [email protected]
State Senator for Gilroy, John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, (State Senate District 13), State Capitol, Room 5108, Sacramento, CA 95814, (916) 445-9740
State Senator for Morgan Hill and San Martin, Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz (State Senate District 15), State Capitol, Room 4081, Sacramento, CA 95814; phone (916) 445-5843, e-mail [email protected]
State Assemblyman for Gilroy is Simon Salinas, D-Salinas (Assembly District 28), State Capital, Room 2175, Sacramento, CA 95814, phone (916) 319-2028; e-mail [email protected]
Assemblyman for Morgan Hill and San Martin is John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, (Assembly District 27), State Capitol, Room 2196, Sacramento, CA 95814, phone (916) 319-2027, e-mail [email protected]
