The Los Angeles Times has reported that some of our friends in the California Legislature are receiving huge public pension payments in addition to their salaries and benefits as legislators.

State legislators receive $110-$116,000 in salary and $35,000 for living expenses. The Times profiled several legislators who are also receiving large pension payments, including: Assemblymember Joe Coto $178,000; openly gay Assemblymember Tom Ammiano $75,000 and local Assemblymember Marty Block $45,000.

There’s absolutely nothing illegal about receiving pension pay in addition to salary. The problem is that these former public employees are back on California’s public payroll. Other states, such as Michigan for example, require legislators to forfeit their retirement checks when they go back on the state payroll. The California Legislature should follow suit and bar public pensioners from returning to the public payroll.

There are more than 5,000 folks who draw double checks from the public purse. In her current race for Assembly, for instance, Toni Atkins, who is eligible to receive up to $4,000 a month in pension payments, should signal to voters that she will either accept state pay or her pension pay as a former city employee.

Mayor Jerry Sanders did that when he was first elected: For his first term in office, he kept his pension pay but didn’t take a salary. Sanders knew perfectly well the pension debacle plaguing San Diego and wanted to set an example. (He now receives both his pension for serving as police chief and his salary as mayor, however.)

It’s no secret that California’s financial woes are largely attributable to the massive pension and heath care benefits the state promised its employees years ago when things were rosy. Today, Californians pay about $3.3 billion to cover pension expenses. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers Retirement System combined lost $94 billion, resulting from bad investments in the real estate and stock markets. To make things worse, the Legislature voted to allow state workers to retire at 55 (instead of 60) and public safety workers to retire at 50.

California is headed for even worse financial devastation this year due to state budget cuts, which will affect our community deeply. GLBT students, many abandoned by their parents, cannot afford massive fee increases, and people living with HIV/AIDS will not be able to afford adequate care because their support has been cut. Further, not only are the cuts painful, but our best allies are public employee unions. The teachers union alone, for instance, spent millions opposing Proposition 8.

In the early 1980s, former Gov. Jerry Brown eschewed the limo and the mansion to live in a studio apartment and drive a Plymouth. He said everyone had to sacrifice so that there was something left for the next generation. But since 1984, the year he left office, his message and example have been nonexistent in federal and state politics. Brown may run again next year. Let’s hope we get the message this time.