State Senator Abel Maldonado may not be the most popular guy around the Senate lounge these days. The Santa Maria Republican is the author of a constitutional amendment that would ban pay raises for the governor, legislators and other state elected officials when California is saddled with a budget deficit - a persistent problem in recent years. "But the common sense thing is to support something like this and move it forward. We are in a crisis," he said. "You can't have a governor who goes out and says we need to cut 10 percent across the board and two days later give a raise to the Legislature," he also said. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced last week that the state was facing a $15.2 billion deficit in the fiscal year that starts July 1 and proposed more than $12 billion in spending cuts to help close the gap and create a $2 billion budget reserve.

The Republican governor also wants to raise $5.1 billion by borrowing against future state lottery revenue. Maldonado's amendment would prohibit the California Citizens Compensation Commission from granting pay raises to the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, controller, treasurer, insurance commissioner, secretary of state, superintendent of public instruction, members of the tax-collecting Board of Equalization or legislators in any fiscal year when the legislative analyst determines there is a deficit. It also would specify that the commission, created by voters in 1990 to set state elected officials' salaries and benefits, has the authority to cut pay and benefits as well as authorize raises or freeze salaries. In some cases, California’s salaries are the highest in the nation for state elected officials, according to a survey prepared for the commission. The seven-member panel is scheduled to meet June 10 to consider a proposal by its chairman, Charles Murray, to cut officials' pay by an unspecified amount because of the state's fiscal problems.