Our View: Legislators get OT pay for no work

When it comes to government spending, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earns low marks. After he campaigned to "tear up the credit cards" and curb excesses, state spending soared from $71 billion when he first took office in 2003 to more than $101 billion for fiscal 2007-2008, the last year he signed a budget adopted by the Legislature.

But like a stopped clock, our spend-thrift governor occasionally gets it right. Gov. Schwarzenegger lashed out Wednesday at lawmakers drawing $170 in extra per diem expenses, "every day when they go to the Capitol ... $1,000 a week tax-free."

Per diem expenses are intended to cover legislators' additional costs for essentially residing in two places, Sacramento and in their home districts. The "extra" per diem the governor referred to is money paid lawmakers to sit through meetings even though the Legislative's work officially ended Aug. 31.

It seems counter-intuitive that people get paid to do a job, then don't deliver what they were paid for, then get paid overtime for as long as they continue not to deliver what they already failed to deliver. As the governor put it: "There are absolutely no consequences to legislators."

We don't suggest legislators convene to purposely accomplish nothing in order to be paid an extra $170 per day, tax-free. Well, maybe we don't suggest that. But when the state is about to run out of money for fundamental services, it's wrong to pay them overtime for continuing to fail at their jobs.

In the Senate alone, taxpayers will pay an extra $46,410 a week in per diem, about $1,190 per senator, despite senators having violated their constitutional duty to adopt a balanced budget way back in June. Do disincentives get any more perverse?

Maybe a more straightforward incentive would be more effective. Why not require senators, who each already are paid $116,208 salary and $35,000 per diem during regular session, to pay back $170 a day every day beyond the constitutional deadline the state goes without an adopted budget?

Lest we cast too broad a criticism, we applaud legislators of both parties who have turned down per diem payments, as reported by the Sacramento Bee. Democrat Sen. Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento rejects per diem year-round. Democrat Sen. Lou Correa of Santa Ana requested his be withheld during the budget standoff.

Assembly Democrats Dave Jones of Sacramento and Lois Wolk of Davis and Assembly Republican Roger Niello of Fair Oaks accept no per diem all year. And Republican Assemblyman Martin Garrick of Solana Beach has rejected per diem since July 1 when the Legislature officially went beyond the constitutional deadline for adopting a budget. At least there are some who refuse to profit from the Legislature's incompetence.