This Day in California Taxpayer Abuse

With Jerry Brown and the Legislature already gearing up plans to raise taxes on private businesses, recession be damned, it's always helpful to be reminded of how desperately the government in Sacramento needs more of our money. After all, we've obviously reached a point where every dollar is being spent on services of vital importance to Californians. At this point, nothing can be cut without making us all worse off.

As an example, John Fensterwald reports that the Assembly Appropriations Committee has killed SB 27. And thank heavens for that. Now our selfless public servants will be free to spike their pensions, and to double-dip CalPERS or CalSTRS by returning to government work after retiring. Clearly, allowing public employees to simultaneously draw retirement benefits and salaries, and allowing managers to reward their allies by giving them massive raises in their final years of employment, is part and parcel of what makes California such a unique and civilized place.

If that doesn't convince you, then maybe this San Francisco Chronicle report on a state audit of whistle-blower reports will help. We know we feel better about unconstitutional fee hikes, knowing that they've helped pay for an official in the state Mental Health Department to attend the Golden Globes and a Julio Iglesias concert. And aren't you going to welcome a renewed push for higher income and sales taxes next year, knowing that they'll be helping a prison psychologist collect hundreds of thousands of tax dollars for time spent seeing patients in private practice? We know we will.