Posted on by Californiacontrarian

And We Pay Them !

This year California’s legislators will make $107,238. They also get $183 per day in tax-free per diem payments to cover expenses for each day they are in session in Sacramento. FYI, Governor Brown’s makes $195,803, which makes him the highest-paid governor in the country.
Q: Who actually pays them?
A: We, the taxpayers of California, pay them.

Are we getting value for our money?
What do they actually do to earn these generous salaries?

For the record last year they passed almost 1,000 bills. Wow, it sure sounds like we are getting our money’s worth! Quantity, yes. Quality, ?? For the record, last year Governor Brown only vetoed about 12% of the bills passed by the legislature, which implies that the citizens of California have over 800 new things to be aware of because of the “work” of its legislators. So not only do we actually pay those in the legislature, but we have to actually live with the nonsense that they pass into law each year. If you think that I am using the word, “nonsense” loosely, perhaps to see if we are getting our money’s worth, we should look at some of the things they are working on this year.

As noted in a recent column by George Skelton in the L.A. Times, the California legislators appear to be wasting their time by sponsoring bills, that include the following:
“Mouth to snout” which would allow first responders to provide this emergency service for dogs and cats.
Barring sit-down restaurants from providing plastic straws unless they are requested.
Making surfing California’s official sport.
(Keep in mind that we are paying them to work on these bills.)

But the primo bill that our “legislators” are working on is SB 1490 (Henry Sterns, D- Canoga Park). This bill involves abolishing Columbus Day and replacing it with “Indigenous Peoples Day”.
Perhaps a bit of history is appropriate here. Many Italian Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of their heritage, and the first celebration was held in New York City on 10/12/1866. In April, 1934 Congress and President FDR proclaimed Oct. 12 as a federal holiday under the name, “Columbus Day.” Since then many liberal bastions such as Berkeley, Ca., Madison, Wisconsin., and Cambridge, Mass have renamed October 12, “Indigenous People Day.”
Recently, the city of L.A. and L.A. County have renamed this day, “Indigenous Peoples Day,” and now our state legislators are “working” on the same thing in Sacramento. This despite the fact that here in California October 12 is not an official holiday. Those who are against keeping October 12 as Columbus Day point out that Columbus did not treat the natives very well, and thus should not be celebrated. I actually do see their point here, and to me any time we can get rid of a useless federal holiday . . . get rid of it!
But I do have an issue with California legislators renaming the day “Indigenous People’s Day” especially in view of the fact that in 1968 then California Governor Ronald Reagan commemorated Native Americans by proclaiming the fourth Friday in September as “Native American’s Day.” Perhaps the California Legislature should consult an official state calendar, and move on to something more useful because that is supposedly what we are paying them to do!

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