As everyone knows California is facing a budget shortfall of $26.3 billion dollars, which Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislature is trying to close by increasing taxes, borrowing through IOUs, and lastly administering spending cuts.  Owing to the crisis, the state has squeezed funding from everything from the arts to education. Surprisingly it has not derailed pay raises for California’s highest paid government workers.

Data pulled out from the salary records on about 48,000 city employees from the City Controller's Office under the California Public Records Act revealed that more than 21,000 Los Angeles city workers take home $70,000 or more a year. More than 6,000 Los Angeles city workers earn $100,000 or more a year in base pay, excluding overtime. More than two-thirds of these workers were from the police, fire department or city attorney’s office.

Some government officials and experts contend that it is necessary to boost the pay of many managerial positions in order to attract and retain skilled workers as they are perfectly capable of getting lucrative job offers in the private sector. The best-paid workers in the state outside the UC system are mostly doctors/psychiatrists working in mental illness institutions, judges, and investment managers working in CalPERS, who on an average make more than $130,000 to $200,000 a year. Others earn hefty paychecks by logging overtime in hard to fill jobs like working with prisoners or the mentally ill.

Data also showed that 73 public workers earned more than $200,000 through overtime that exceeded their standard base salary. Nurses, fire fighters, police officers all accounted for this. Several California Highway Patrol officers in the San Francisco Bay Area earned more than $80,000 each in overtime alone.  On an average police captains received $306,000 in pay and benefits, police lieutenants received $247,644, and the average for firefighters including overtime is $171,000.

Currently, California’s Supreme Court judges and Appellate court justices are the highest paid in the nation, earning more than $171,648 a year as base salary plus tens of thousands in taxes and benefits. From taxpayer funded cars and gas to tax free money for living expenses, the California judges are living the high life while the deficit continues to grow.

Given the state’s woes, compensation for employees of the prison heath care system in California has raised many eyebrows. Prison doctors and nurses dominate the state’s highest paid roster. More than 240 doctors and nurses earned over $226,359 last year. The average salary for prison doctors who are state employees is at least $35,000 more than comparable doctors in San Francisco, who are among the best paid in California and $60,000 more than in those in Sacramento. The average salary of a senior level state psychiatrist is $157,758.  This is more than the salary of the governor!

Employees belong to California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) accounted for 7 out of the 10 top paid state employees. The average salary of a senior investment manager at CalPERS is $218,000.

Also, Los Angeles City Council members saw their pay rise 36 percent since 1997, to $133,051, making them the highest-paid council members in the nation. Currently at $178,789, Los Angeles City Council salaries are still the highest in the nation. The average Department of Water and Power worker made $76,949 a year, nearly 20 percent more than the average civilian city worker. More than 13% of the DWP workers are paid above $100,000.

In a state of crisis when public services like schools, healthcare and public safety are getting cut, the salaries of hundreds state employees have increased significantly. The state bears a heavy burden of proof to justify such salary increases when everything else is suffering.  How is it that those in the private sector see their salaries and benefits getting cut while there is little mention of cutting base salary among government workers outside the few mandatory furlough days?  The citizens of the state must demand accountability and a shared burden between the public and private job sectors during this time of crisis!