Say ‘Not Now’ to Raises

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger knows the members of the state Legislature had no hand in raising their pay by 12%. That was entirely the work of an independent state commission (though one with a spectacularly bad sense of timing) that sets all executive and legislative salaries. This first raise since 1998 would boost annual salaries from $99,000 to $110,880 effective Dec. 1.

Schwarzenegger, who knows how to go for the jugular, hammered lawmakers for it in a speech Wednesday. “Isn’t that interesting,” the governor said. “They have agreed to a 12% salary increase even though they say we are short of money. So instead of giving the people that really need more money -- like education, like healthcare, Healthy Families ... the legislators have decided that they need the money first.”

This is pure demagoguery, nearly every word of it false. But the raise was such a juicy, perfectly timed target. As in the Gray Davis days, members of the Legislature are about the only public figures in the state less popular than the governor. Schwarzenegger saw a way to make points at their expense. Yet as Times columnist George Skelton pointed out this week, the back-and-forth bashing succeeds only as a “murder-suicide.”

In any case, this is a political issue the Democratic leaders of the Legislature can’t win, and they should quit trying. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) tried to argue that legislators still make less than Los Angeles City Council members, plus they have to maintain two homes (failing to mention that they receive $138 for each day of legislative duty, tax-free). No matter how good any part of Nunez’s argument may be, no one is going to buy it.

Democratic leaders in both houses should gather their members and tell them how it is. They should unanimously and voluntarily agree not to accept the raise, at least until a year from now, when the state may have finally turned the corner on budget deficits.

The only way to stop the free fall of public confidence is for Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders to shove aside the petty issues and get together in a room for some horse-trading. Voters have indicated to the pollsters how they feel about the endless game of “gotcha.”