EDITORIAL WORKING TOGETHER.

REPUBLICAN Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made a lot of hay out of wanting to work with Democrats in the Legislature to reform a number of the things broken in the state: Public employee pensions, legislative districts, health care and education, to name a few.

His dream, he noted Thursday during an editorial board meeting with the Daily News, was to jointly unveil this summer a package of reforms crafted in conjunction with Democratic leadership.

Clearly, Schwarzenegger is being a bit coy, since Democratic leaders jump on every proposal of his and cry foul.

We Californians have some hard choices to make over the next year if the state is to avoid an impending fiscal train wreck caused by years of overspending by an apparently unrepentant Legislature. The kinds of sniping and political posturing being practiced by some politicians, such as state Treasurer Phil Angelides and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, make it appear they want to bring down the governor and his initiatives more than fix what's broken.

Schwarzenegger extended the olive branch. If the Democrats are truly interested in solving the state's problems, they will quit sniping and take him up on the offer and come up with solutions - and we're not talking about simply throwing more money at the problems by raising taxes.

The Democrats just don't seem to get it. The people need to see that they're getting their money's worth for the taxes they're paying now before they even begin to think about paying more. Times are tough, and they expect the Legislature to be prudent with their money.

Is anyone in Sacramento listening, other than the governor?