THE CALIFORNIA AUTO INSURANCE BOONDOGGLE

Step right up folks, have I got a deal for you. How would you like to have car insurance coverage that paid for any damage to your car at absolutely no cost to you? And what if it didn’t matter whether or not it was your fault? And what if you didn’t pay a single dime for all this? Does this sound like something that would be of interest to you?

This is the deal given to California’s State Legislature.

True, these are company cars, but the member gets to choose their car and they get to take it home at night. It does not have to be used exclusively for business and is free to use by any member of the family.

Who pays for all this, you might ask. Well, who else? It's the taxpayers who foot the bill. According to a Media News review of public documents, taxpayers have forked over more than $300,000.00 in the past five years for repairs to the legislators’ cars.

Another little perk here is that by not having to pay insurance premiums, the lawmakers likely saved thousands of their own personal dollars. So you, as a loyal taxpayer, are not only paying for the car and the repairs, you are also helping them put many precious dollars into their bank account.

"It is outrageous that taxpayers should be forced to pay for the damage to a vehicle given to a politician but driven and damaged by a family member who isn't even an elected officer," said Jon Coupal, president of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

Assemblyman Hector de la Torre, D-South Gate, chairman of the Assembly Rules Committee countered with: "The vehicle is a state asset, and so our responsibility is to make sure that that asset is in top condition … It’s just simpler and cleaner for the state to fix the car."

So once again it’s a taxpayer burden and you have to come up with your own dollars to pay for their damages.

Do you ever feel that sometimes you are playing on the wrong side of the net?

The California Curmudgeon