California lawmakers get a pay raise?

I was wondering what some of the techlore members think about the bigwigs in sacramento voting themselves a 12% pay increase.

I read recently in the LA Times that welfare funds were being cut, but I would like an honest answer from our lawmakers as to where they found the money to give themselves a raise.

They already drive leased cars that us taxpayers provide and get other extras, too.

I wish one of them would go under cover into a california welfare office and apply for benefits.
The benefits have been cut so much in recent years. I read somewhere that the state wants to discourage people from applying for benefits so that's why they cut the benefits, (a family gets more, but a single person only gets a small sum of money).

Brian