Table 4 shows average earnings, for 2013, in California for a full-time state-and-local employee are $6,190. No other state even breaks the $6,000 barrier. Although Washington, D.C. — not a state, of course, but the recipient of our national tax dollars — came in at $6,391.

Even liberal states were lower:

• Connecticut: $5,739
• New York: $5,706
• Illinois: $5,231
• Massachusetts: $5,222

The national average was $4,603. That means California’s average earnings for state-and-local workers of $6,190 was 34 percent above the national average.

But doesn’t California have the highest median income per capita? No. It’s only 15th (for 2012), at $44,980. That’s just 5 percent above the national median income of $42,693.

To recapitulate: California’s state-and-local government workers make 34 percent more than the national average; while our people who pay the taxes for the government workers make just 5 percent above the national average.

Sure, the state is incredibly expensive. But it’s incredibly expensive for everybody. It’s just that one class, government functionaries, is living much better, in comparison to their fellow government workers in other states, than everybody else in this state.

And what do these highly paid bureaucrats do?

Mess up our lives.

Well, you should have joined the public sector and lived off those who actually produce something. July 1 saw a pay raise for state employees.

And of course, that’s in addition to the massive perks and pensions they also get. At age 52, many government workers retire in luxury with 90 percent pensions based on their last year’s generous pay.

Meanwhile, you’re slaving away to pay for everything.

Oh, and guess what? The economy is “improving” and unemployment is “decreasing” mainly because more government workers are being hired. The Wall Street Journal reported:

The recent hiring spurt—one of the best stretches since the late 1990s—has gotten a surprising lift by a major sector: government.

In June, all levels of government added a seasonally adjusted 26,000 employees. That gain outpaced the manufacturing and construction sectors — combined. Rising government employment not only adds to the total hiring figure, it also represents growth in a relatively well-paying field.

The Declaration of Independence insisted on America splitting from England because it charged of King George III, “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.”

But that’s just what “our” government now does to us now. And to think, the Revolution started because of some minor taxes on tea and stamps.

Hey, “California is back,” Brown keeps saying. The CA Dem party is meeting this weekend in Los Angeles. The theme:

“Let there be no doubt: California has turned the corner and that’s thanks to Jerry Brown,” said John Burton, Chairman of the California Democratic Party. “With the Governor leading the way, and a strong Democratic majority in the Legislature, Democrats balanced the state’s budget and ended the cuts to education. California is once more investing in its future instead of cutting our way to the bottom.”

Except the budget, as even Brown’s January proposal concedes, doesn’t include $4.5 billion needed to keep CalSTRS solvent.

Moreover, California’s unfunded pension debt for public workers remains at least $500 billion.

And recent U.S. Census Bureau data revealed that, when cost-of-living is take into account, California has the country’s highest poverty rate. Worse than Mississippi, Alabama and West Virginia.

A study last year revealed that California’s roads were 47th worst in the nation.

And California’s “skoole” kids continue to rank near the bottom on national tests.

Far from being “back,” California remains down and out.

If the state were a private-sector company, it long ago would have gone bankrupt, its officials out of work and possibly on the lam from the SEC for financial misfeasance and malfeasance.

But ours will get raises.

Our friend and colleague Brian Calle reports in the Orange County Register:

It pays well to wash your motorcycle if you are a cop in Newport Beach, where officers who patrol on motor bikes are paid an additional six hours of overtime every month simply for giving their cycles a wash. The special compensation equates to, on average, about a 5 percent pay hike for motorcycle officers, or about $5,600 a year in additional monies, according to an analysis of city documents and interviews with key city staff.

As alarming as that may seem, this is only one example of special pay that inflates salaries and is often hidden from public view because of the stealth nature of negotiations.

The sweet deal is part of the contract negotiated between the police union and the city – yet another creative example of public employee pay abuses at taxpayer expense….

One might assume that keeping equipment clean should be part of basic job functions, but in the world of public employees, where seemingly everything is negotiable, that is not the case.

Calle calculates that the cops get $52 an hour for washing down their hogs.

How sweet it is — as the late, great Jackie Gleason used to day.

Except for taxpayers, of course, who are soaked for this expensive bike washing.

How hard can it possibly be to keep a bike clean? And if the cops need help, how about hiring some unemployed Californians? “There remain 2.1 million unemployed workers in the state, and more than 1 million have been out of work for 27 weeks or more,” reported the L.A. Times.

Pay the bike washers the minimum wage of $8 an hour, which is 1/6th of what the $52 the overpaid cops get.

Remember this expensive outrage the next time government functionaries, legislators, the union bosses who control them and leftist journalists demand that taxes be increased.

No wonder the California Legislature’s approval rating by citizens is at 10%, an all-time low. Street gangs are held in higher esteem than the Legislature Gang. Consider this sweet scam:

By convening for less than a half hour on Friday, the 80 members of the Assembly and 40 members of the Senate entitled themselves to $568 each.

That’s almost a $70,000 cost to taxpayers.

The reason? On top of their $95,291 annual salary, lawmakers can collect $142 per day when the legislature is in session. Those daily payments halt if the legislature takes off four or more days.

By convening for a short time on Friday, the legislature kept the Presidents Day holiday as a three-day weekend, meaning they could collect the daily payments while on recess Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Imagine you doing that at your job. You punch in early in the morning, then get four days off — with pay. Oh, and you get a free car, too. With a taxpayer-supplied credit card for the gas.

The Legislators can’t even do their jobs, running up deficit after deficit, year after year, the current amount being $25 billion.

And the solution of the Democratic majority in the Legislature? The same one since the Pharaohs ripped off their subjects to build the pyramids: tax slavery. In our case, $12 billion in tax increases.

Here’s an idea: Why don’t we just dissolve the state government? Let the counties and cities do what’s needed for the citizens.

Enough waste by these wastrels in the state capitol is enough.

Feb. 19, 2011