December 1, 2007
Editor:
Assemblyman John Laird insists that the state’s budget crisis is due to the fact that “Californians generally believe in government and want it adequately funded” (Viewpoints, 11/30/07).
Nonsense. Californians also generally believe in eating, and want it adequately funded, but they don’t express that belief by going out to restaurants and ordering food they don’t have the means to pay for. The reason Sacramento witnesses one budget crisis after another is because politicians like Laird are too irresponsible to limit expenditures to no more than the amount of revenues, the way the rest of us must.
Anyone who says the state budget can’t be cut simply lacks the political courage to say no to entrenched government interests. Legislators could take a major step toward fiscal sanity by capping the salaries of state employees, including themselves, at $99,999 per year. “Public service” should mean just that – serving the public. No one should be raking in six-figure salaries on the backs of working Californians struggling to make ends meet after paying state sales tax and various other taxes and fees. Too many politicians and bureaucrats have gotten used to taking home way bigger checks than the ordinary people they work for (see http://www.dpa.ca.gov/salaries/elected.htm ). Shame on Assemblyman Laird and his greedy, fatcat colleagues for always trying to raise taxes or cut services instead of tightening their own belts for a change.
Sincerely,
Starchild
Vice Chair/Outreach Director
Libertarian Party of San Francisco
3531 16th Street,
San Francisco, CA 94114
(415) 621-7932