EDITORIAL UNFAIR LIABILITY IT'S TIME TO CUT THE PERKS FOR POLITICIANS.

WITH his options for municipal elected office drying up, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo should think about running for a state legislative seat. In that job, at least he wouldn't have to worry about whether his wife is driving his state car. And if she wrecks it again, he won't have to worry about whether anyone will find out that the taxpayers paid to fix it.

That's because while such treatment of taxpayer-provided vehicles is prohibited for city pols, it's perfectly acceptable and quite common for state legislators, according to an investigation by the San Jose Mercury News. The damages to their cars are fixed -- no questions asked no matter who was driving it.

This perk has cost taxpayers $338,057 in the past five years. It's not a huge sum of money by any stretch of the imagination -- not compared to the billions they waste every year.

But it's an affront, and tacked on to the millions spent buying and maintaining and fueling the cars, it adds up to a substantial -- and unnecessary -- drain on public funds.

Besides, it's just the right thing to do to take responsibility for one's own negligent actions.

Why should taxpayers pay the bill for the $11,807 repair bill from when then-Assemblyman Jerome Horton crashed his 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe through a Southern California intersection last year when he was talking on a cell phone and failed to yield to an approaching vehicle?

Publicly funded cars for legislators and council members might have been a good idea once, back in the days when those jobs were paid nominal stipends and people ran for office out a sense of civic duty, not to get rich.

But these days, the state legislators and L.A. city elected officials are among the wealthy class with their six-figure salaries. They can well afford to buy their own cars, to pay for their own car washes, to buy their own fuel, to pay their own insurance premiums and to fix their own engines, and to put in for mileage reimbursement -- just like the rest of us.

As abuses of government-owned cars mount, it's time that the public starts demanding an end to this particular perk.