Why Government is disfunctional

Prop 22 on the upcoming California ballot is a scrap between local governments and the state over limited funds. Prop 22 is sponsored by Cities who argue about protecting local services I was listening to arguments pro and con on NPR and kept coming back to the fact I have been seeing a lot of data recently documenting the fact public employees make a lot more in salary and benefits than the average private sector employees. Why should we in the private sector care about helping protect money for local services when it seems like with "public servants" protecting their relatively cushy jobs is more important than providing services? In the private sector when funds are not available people make less money. In the public sector when funds are scarce salaries are protected at the expense of the services that are the function of the organization.

It seems to me the fiscal train wreck that is government in California stems in large part from that simple issue. People in the private sector see a lack of accountability in the pubic sector. "Public Service" is a dead concept, public sector jobs are usually pretty cushy compared to their private sector counterparts. Its easy to lose any enthusiasm for supporting government when you are scrambling to pay taxes to support people who are living off your labors quite comfortably.