Even in this era of employee layoffs and furloughs, state Legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can't control their urges to make deals and give their cronies cushy jobs at taxpayers' expense.
The Senate Rules Committee, chaired by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, last week appointed termed-out Sen. Denise Ducheny to the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. The post pays a sweet $128,109 for not a lot of work. The appeals board meets once, maybe twice, a month and is stacked with other former lawmakers.
Schwarzenegger, who promised to blow up political boxes in a wave of governmental reform, earlier named former Assembly Republicans Bonnie Garcia, George Plescia and Sharon Runner to the unemployment appeals board. What a sweet deal they have.
This board cannot be justified, not when the state faces red ink for as far as the eye can see. In fact, it shouldn't have been in existence when the state was fat with cash.
Civil servants could carry out the duties every bit as well as termed-out legislators. And the bureaucrats would be working full-time instead of pulling down six-figure salaries for part-time work.
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