EDITOR,

A recent ruling in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles stipulates that the Los Angeles police force must compensate officers for putting on and taking off their uniforms, as “dressing for duty is a vital part of the job, because uniforms legitimize an officer’s authority, increase the officer’s safety and help deter crime.”

This may result in a $2,000 yearly increase on every $75,000-a-year salary. It is an annual addition to a city budget that has a gap of more than $500 million.

Although seemingly small, this example shows how state municipal unions have taxpayers over a barrel. The simple fact that this lawsuit had enough merit to move forward and receive a 39-page ruling underscores the taxpayer’s dilemma.

One would think that, in a “normal” world, this type of claim would be laughed out of court. I can imagine a Home Depot employee approaching a store manager to request a pay increase because it took time to take his orange apron on and off.

The response would be, “What are you thinking?” among other more colorful phrases.

What about doctors, nurses, fire fighters, garbagemen and priests? The implications are obvious.

Yet, we, as residents of California, are victims of this scam by our support of our current state government.

We are told to tighten our belts and that sacrifice is required to make it through these difficult economic times. We are told that the state (or city, or county — it doesn’t matter) has cut thousands of jobs. When we dig further, we find that no jobs were eliminated, only that those scheduled to be staffed were never filled. Reductions in the budgets are really just smaller increases than originally planned.

Yet we take it and continue to vote in the same people, again and again.

Government is for the people and by the people. We seem to have the opposite in this state. The state is the “solution” for all problems — we exist for the state.

Our liberties and opportunities are being destroyed by the spending and growth of our state government.

David Hamer, Tracy