Nice: 500 California Highway Patrolmen make over $150,000 annually--and the proposed budget shows a 3% increase for the department to $1.98 billion

God bless our law enforcement personnel. Hell, years ago, Papa B was some kind of deputy in Fulton County, Georgia. But the public sector unions and Democrat officials, working hand in hand, have just about bankrupted municipalities across the country.

And California is among the worst of the lot, what with a $20 billion budget deficit, $500 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, and a Democrat gubernatorial candidate who wants amnesty for illegal aliens.

But to get the full flavor of just how out-of-control California's public sector unions are -- they represent hundreds of thousands of employees -- let's take a quick look at the compensation of the California highway patrol system.

Note the jump in salaries between 2008 and 2009. This is likely due to "pension spiking" or artificially granting large raises just before retirement in order to boost pension payments.

The following is page 10 of the report, each of which has 25 officers per page.

There are nearly 500 state highway patrol officers making $150,000-a-year or more. 500. Which means just those fine folks alone are costing California's taxpayers about $100 million annually.

And, best I can tell, there are about 10,000 people employed by the state highway patrol system. Ten-freaking-thousand. And 5,200 of those public employees make over $100,000 annually.

Just a guess, but from perusing the database, it would appear that the average salary is about $110,000.

Which means the CHiPs system costs California's taxpayers $1.1 billion in compensation alone, to say nothing of facilities, retirement payments, vehicles, etc.

But go ahead, Californians, just vote for Jerry Brown and more Democrat union cronies. Things couldn't get worse.

Could they?


Hat tip: Captive Directory.