Taxpayers to lawmakers: we'll owe you this time

I've long thought that if pay was witheld from state and federal legislators who fail to meet their annual deadline with a balanced budget, we'd have an on-time, in-the-black fiscal spreadsheet most every year.

Now we might get to test that strategy, as the California controller says those in the state Senate and Assembly are first in line for IOUs if the state can no longer pay its bills.

It's a step that should have been taken a long, long time ago. This version of the budget is months late and still hemorrhaging red ink.

Too many lawmakers obviously aren't motivated enough by the public trust. Maybe their personal wallets are more of an incentive.