Rigonomics:

Tuesday’s election results should have surprised no one.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told voters all the state needed was to borrow $5 billion on the lottery, move another $2 billion around from one fund to another and California’s back on its feet. Oh, and wait, just one more detail: All we had to do was agree to a two-year extension of the 1% sales tax increase. The added cost to California residents was $8 billion more in taxes. Sound familiar?

Just five years ago when voters, wanting to believe their new governor, bought that same sales pitch they approved Proposition 57 allowing the state to borrow $15 billion to balance the budget. It was the first time in the state’s history that voters agreed to borrow money to pay back state debt. Schwarzenegger said we need the money to pay for the mistakes of the previous administration. It was supposed to be a one-time borrowing to help us get through. We are still paying back that bond, by the way.

Well, fool me once … California voters were not going to fall for that one again.

Now with all the initiatives defeated, we read in the paper of all the drastic cuts the state will have to make. Slash $750 million from a state’s prison rehabilitation program. Save $1.4 billion by shutting down the Healthy Families program, which provides medical services for 928,000 children, and Cal Works, which serves 500,000 poor families with children.

I am not here to either defend or denounce any of these programs. I just want you to notice that whenever California government gets in financial trouble, our leaders never cut back like they do in the private sector.

I said it last week and I will say it again. The state is trying to save money by doing things like furloughing employees. All that amounts to is giving days off without pay.

If the state can get the work done without working those days, they should cut the staff. On the other hand, if the work is just not getting done then all you have left to do is cut the cost of the employees doing the work.

The silence is deafening when anyone suggests that state and local employees take a pay cut and work the same hours. Notice that even Republican elected officials, who preach smaller government, never bring up cutting salaries, benefits and perks.

Why, you ask? They are afraid of being attacked by the public employee labor unions.

The last thing an elected official wants is to be targeted by a union at the next election. Unlike most organizations, labor unions have almost unlimited amounts of money to spend for or against candidates in local races. Politicians — both Republican and Democrats alike — won’t tell you this, but they would rather not upset a sleeping giant. The dirty little secret in politics is that the labor unions run this state. They all know what is going on but they do not want to pick that fight. They do not have the courage.

Just read all the quotes we got in this paper from our local Republican state office holders after Tuesday election. They say things like “Sacramento: Live within your means,” “… make the state more accountable” “…Don’t spend more than you take in.” “…bring transparency and performance standards to state government.” Quite frankly, I do not need a lecture on budgeting 101 from someone who does not have the courage to speak the truth.

Why is it that our state senators and assemblymen never ask why we have 2,152 Forestry and Fire protection state employees who make between $100,000 and $289,000 a year? Did you ever hear their concern that we have 5,661 rank-and-file Correctional Officers who make between $100,000 and $231,687 annually? How is this for a little transparency? Did you know we have 4,383 employees of the California Highway Patrol who make between $100,000 and $291,761? If you listened to your Republican lawmakers you would never know that.

Lucky for us the Sacramento Bee has www.sacbee.com/statepay that shows the total pay for every state employee. Search it by department, occupation or name. Next time you bump into one of your state representatives you can ask them why they are afraid to speak the truth. California is bankrupt because they are afraid of upsetting the labor unions. I can understand why Democrats do not speak up; but Republicans in safe seats? Please.

Jim Righeimer is chairman of the Costa Mesa Planning Commission, local business owner and father of four. He may be reached at Jim@Rigonomics.com.