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Sunday, April 11, 2010

A relevant Legislature would act - Capitol and California - fresnobee.com

A relevant Legislature would act - Capitol and California - fresnobee.com

Dan Walters: California pension funds' shortfall may be something to cuss about

Posted at 12:00 AM on Sunday, Apr. 11, 2010

- dwalters@sacbee.com

The Legislature, whose public standing in polls is rock-bottom, did it itself no favors when it approved a resolution calling for Californians to observe a "cuss-free week."

The action predictably attracted wide public attention, but most of it probably reflected Republican Assemblyman Chris Norby's comment: "With the state broke, I don't know that this is what we should be spending time on."

If the Legislature wanted to repair its very tarnished public standing, it would deal seriously with California's long list of public policy issues. As Treasurer Bill Lockyer recently advised lawmakers, stop introducing useless pieces of legislative junk that inflate their bill counts but contribute to the Capitol's image of irrelevance and foolishness.

The chronically unbalanced state budget, of course, tops the list of the Capitol's unfinished important business. As they desperately seek some more gimmicky "solutions" that would merely postpone the day of fiscal reckoning



Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/04/11/1892092/dan-walters-california-pension.html#ixzz0knWiLX7b