Question of the Day: What can you get for $116,208 per year?

First some context -- and this is required watching: California Treasurer Bill Lockyer goes ballistic when addressing the idiots in the California Legislature, telling them the're, well, idiots, because of their inability to come to grips with financial realities:

"t’s impossible for this legislature to reform the pension system, and if we don’t, we bankrupt the state. And I don’t think anybody can do it here, because of who elected you. … You’re just captive of the current environment — I don’t see any way out! "

That was on 24 October. Today, my good friend, Bill Preston, of the USAF Auxiliary, sends this little tidbit:



What is it? Why, it's a candid snap of our beloved California legistlators in action. The line-up is House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, pictured standing, far right, speaks while colleagues Rep. Barbara Lambert, D-Milford and Rep. Jack F. Hennessy, D-Bridgeport, play solitaire Monday night as the House convened to vote on a new budget. The guy sitting in the row in front of these two? He's on Facebook, and the guy behind Hennessy is checking out the baseball scores. The photo is courtesy of AP.

To add insult to injury, this is the same group that works three days a week and, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article, have the highest salaries of any state legislators in the land:

A survey prepared in recent months by state personnel department officials showed that the annual salaries of $212,000 for the governor and $116,208 for state legislators are much higher than the compensation for comparable positions in eight other states surveyed, including New York and Texas. The next highest pay for legislators is $79,650, in Michigan.

If you are a Californian, is your blood boilng yet?