EDITORIAL VICIOUS CIRCLE STATE OFFICIALS' PAYCHECKS KEEP ESCALATING, BUT PERFORMANCE KEEPS DECLINING.

RAISES for state politicians are set by the California Citizen's Compensation Commission, a group of seven members appointed by the governor.

If that inherent conflict of interest isn't enough to make Californians skeptical about the panel's credibility, then perhaps the 18 percent pay boost for the governor and other statewide elected officials will be.

The commission's vote last week to continue its giveaway of public funds to do-nothing officials comes one year after the 120 members of the state Assembly and Senate were given 12 percent raises.

With this boost, the job of governor of California will be paid $206,500 a year, the highest in the nation. The lieutenant governor, arguably the most extraneous job in all of Sacramento, will be paid $154,875, up from the current $131,250.

State legislators will see their paychecks grow from $110,880 to $113,097, with a more modest 2 percent raise this time around. This doesn't include, however, all the per diems, expenses, benefits and perks that also come with the job.

Commissioners reason that the raises were not performance-related but necessary to give state politicians' pay equity with their county and municipal counterparts. And that is the crowning insult of all, since Los Angeles' grotesquely overpaid officials have their salaries tied to those of judges -- a vicious circle of escalating paychecks if ever there was one.

To reward politicians who fail the public so consistently is outrageous as ordinary Californians are struggling with higher interest rates, higher gas prices and outlandish housing prices.

The pay raises are a fiscal legacy of the free-spending days of former Gov. Gray Davis, who appointed all seven of the current commissioners. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has yet to make an appointment, and when current terms expire, he shouldn't, rendering the commission powerless for lack of a quorum.

This so-called independent commission was created by voters in 1990 to make fair decisions about compensation for lawmakers. But surely the voters didn't intend to endorse such pay inequity among the state's do-little pols.

And that's where the real answer lies: Put elected officials' salaries to a public vote. That way they'll have to convince the people who pay the bills that they're worth the money.