In response to California's budget crisis, more than half of the state senators have agreed to reduce their 116,208-dollar salary this year, most taking a five-percent cut starting July 1, it was reported on Sunday.

During budget negotiations last week, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg took the lead by offering to have his salary reduced by five percent, according to the Los Angeles Tims.

He also urged his 39 colleagues to follow suit as part of a cost-cutting package he called "responsive to the state's current crisis situation."

By Friday evening, 26 senators followed the lead of Steinberg by agreeing to have their salary sliced this year, the paper said.

Some others were already making less than 116,208 dollars after declining their last raise, in 2007, or otherwise voluntarily shrinking their paychecks, the paper said.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass has not asked the 80 members of her house to reduce their earnings, although at least 13 have done so to varying degrees in the last seven months.

A five-percent decrease will save the state 5,810 dollars per legislator per fiscal year in most cases.

"It makes no sense to ask millions of Californians to accept cutbacks in pay or services without cutting back ourselves," Senator Patricia Wiggins said.

But state employee union spokesman Jim Zamora noted that it was only a drop in the bucket relative to the state's 24-billion-dollar budget hole.

"It's just a symbolic act. What they need to do is come up with a long-term solution to the budget problem," said Zamora, a spokesman for Service Employees International Union, Local 1000.

The union members have taken a pay cut of nearly 10 percent through twice-monthly unpaid furloughs initiated in February, Zamora said.

Source: Xinhua