“Sen. Lou Correa is the second legislator to voluntarily cut his pay immediately in accord with a recent vote by the state’s independent salary-setting commission that can’t be enforced until late next year,” according to the Sacramento Bee.
Wow! I bet Supervisor Janet Nguyen would never cut her own pay!
The Santa Ana Democrat has asked the state controller to slice his salary to 10 percent below the current legislative salary of $116,208.
“Given the continuing decline in state revenue and the required upcoming cuts to many vital programs, I believe it is my responsibility to lead by example in reducing my salary,” Correa wrote to the state controller’s office.
Kudos to State Senator Correa for setting a fine example for the rest of the Legislators in Sacramento!
This is a weak gesture on the part of Senator Correa in an effort to rehabilitate his chances for re-election in 2010.
Lou violated his campaign pledge to not vote to raise taxes on Californians. That fact will be writ large by his competitors in his re-election attempt.
#1,
Except that Correa has a long history of turning down pay raises and taking pay cuts. Read the Sacramento Bee article I linked to in my post.
Supervisor Nguyen, on the other hand, has quickly become as corrupt as her longtime nemesis, Van Tran. Remember when she voted against restaurant health ratings, even though her husband and her chief of staff own a restaurant that has received major health violations? And now that same husband is on the Garden Grove Planning Commission. I wonder how thatt happened?
Correa cares about his constituents. Nguyen is just trying to stuff the wallets of her family, friends and allies.
I recall ALL legislators are taking a pay cut, so this might be an empty gesture. Correa’s support of tax increases was not. Everyone talks about what a likable guy he is, but he clearly screwed us by lying about his intentions and voting to tax. Lou deserves to be voted OUT.
#3,
Read the article. Correa was exempt from that cut.
When your hands are tied in over 70% of the budget to spending levels set by previous propositions, Federal mandates and the Constitution calls for a balanced budget, what is one suppost to do?
Prison spending is at the complete discreation of the legislator, Education is set at a specific Percentage of revenue, many social programs are notable to be cut because it would cost more federal dollars than it would save and others are mandated by proposition.
So without Tax changes the options are release and close all prisons, suspend all road projects, take all the money that is currently alloted for the Cities and Counties. All of that together would come close to the 25 billion dollar figure needed.
What would you propose?
Republican Senator Abel Maldonado agreed to have his pay cut by 18% starting June 1st.
Why has Correa agreed to take only a 10% cut? He should take an 18% cut just like Maldonado and in accordance with the California Citizens Compensation Commissions vote.
He obviously doesn’t have to take a cut but if he’s going to take a cut he should take the full cut.
In any event he better hope Janet Nguyen doesn’t jump into this race cause he won’t beat Janet. On the other hand he may get his old job back.
At this point Lynn Daucher might even be up for a rematch.
Yes let’s save the extra 2,160,000 for the year every legisltor would save by taking a 18% cut, where does the other 24.8 Billion come from?
JB #5 said: “When your hands are tied … what is one suppost to do?”
Hey Jim, the answer is cut – cut – cut! And if that isn’t enough – go BK and then sort it out.
If this were simply a story giving kudos to Sen. Correa for being proactive about his salary cut, one could take it at face value. I rarely read OJ Blog anymore because the real purpose of this (and many other) post(s) was simply to rip Janet Nguyen. Whether Sen. Correa has a history of accepting salary cuts or not, speculation on Supv. Nguyen’s inclination to do the same is irrelevant absent either Correa’s or Nguyen’s injection of the issue into what is, at the moment, a very theoretical political race.
Once again, OJ Blog is simply ripping Republicans for the sake of ripping Republicans, using Correa’s self-imposed and preemptive salary cut as a pretext. Kudos to Sen. Correa and jeers to OJ Blog.
Annie,
When Janet does something good we will write about it. So far her record stinks.
What did you think of the Supervisors voting against using tobacco settlement funds to pay for breast cancer scans for young uninsured women?
The tobacco settlement is a miscarriage of justice. Those who should have benefitted are dead. The suit was ultimately about money–money for the attorneys who brought the class action–and not about justice. Tobacco is a legal product in the United States and the industry is so hyper-regulated, that it would be a stretch to claim that Americans do not understand that tobacco is an unhealthy vice today. Let people decide for themselves.
There is not necessarily a nexus between tobacco’s use and breast cancer, so I’m not sure that I would disagree with the Supervisors’ vote.
Annie,
Feel free to go elsewhere if the OJ is to troublesome a read for you. If you want to read cheerleading for the GOP go to Red County.
Lou Correa represents the people of his district quite well. He looks out for us. Janet Nguyen looks out for her own political best interests.
Sean,
Don’t fool yourself, just about anyone in politics for any length of time is looking out for his or her own political best interests. I’m not looking for GOP cheerleading; what I am referring to is using a pretext to rip someone with whom the subject has no connection (Correa’s salary to Nguyen’s ?????). No connection other than what one wishes to manufacture in one’s mind.
There is simply no call for that.
I hope you don’t think that my problem with tactics has anything to do with my opinion (or lack thereof) of Janet Nguyen.
I was going to say something snarky about Sean, but then I remember, that I am just one big idiot doppleganger who promised to post at a couple of other blogs!
See ya!
Annie,
Janet voted to remodel the Supervisor’s lobby and to buy expensive new furniture for her office, even though the county is struggling financially and laying off county workers.
And then there is that restaurant vote.
She is the epitome of self-serving.
Ty,
Actually it was childish for Annie to say that she doesn’t like our blog. If she hates it so much then why is she here shilling for Nguyen?
Whether or not Annie keeps commenting her is immaterial. We are the top political blog in Orange County. We will continue to do well with our without Annie. I think that was Sean’s point.
Art,
Have I not been clear that I am not shilling for Nguyen? I couldn’t care less what you say about her, but in context, please.
TY, or would prefer “Junior”? My point is that if Annie does not like what she reads here and it is upsetting to her then she should not visit our blog. There is no need to upset oneself unnecessarily is there?
We express our opinions here and if you and Annie don’t like that you are free to visit the many other sites available to you in the blogosphere. Red County and Sunny D come to mind and God knows they could use the readership.
The OJ’s formula seems to be working so forgive us if we don’t don’t heed Annie’s desire to change what we write or how we write it.
You can go back to being the angry man now Jun…errr…TY.
Annie,
Janet is telling everyone I know that she is running against Correa, so she is fair game.
Is OJ Simpson missing a “Cato”? We seem to have an extra one here that I’d like to donate.
😉
Correa is to Conservative for most of the Democrats in Orange County, but his priorty has always been to try to represent the wishes of his constituants. Most of them are in the middle of the road.
I respect him greatly and will support his re-election. Inspite of the fact that he has voted differently that I would have on several items.
I was having lunch at East End this week, one of my fav capitol resturaunts and could’nt help a couple of pretty boy strategists talking about a $99,999. salary cap on EVERY STATE EMPLOYEE.
Their fantasy went like this: A take charge Governor, fights to put that in place leading by example. It gains her some quick goodwill with the voting public and then the real cuts start.
It’s not lost on me that the dudes AMEX was rejected when the bill came!
Art:
I expect more of you. This is old news and all it shows is that Lou claimed to take a cut in pay a week after a State Commission implemented the pay cut to start next month. Your nemisis Matt Cunningham noted this new (and was snookered just like you) weeks ago.
So, kudos for Lou in pulling the wool over your eyes.
#23,
Old news? I just found out today in an email blast from the Sacramento Bee’s political department. So no, this is not old news.
Lou isn’t pulling any wool over anyone’s eyes. He is quite up front about what he does.
But what did you think about Supervisor Janet Nguyen voting not to spend tobacco settlement money on breast cancer scans for young women who are uninsured?
Whatever the reason, give the guy some credit for taking a pay cut. I commend him for doing that much when so many are taking. Let’s give the guy a break. Kudos to Lou Correa!