SPAMMING IS ILLEGAL – WE REPORT SPAM – DO NOT POST SPAM – STOP! NO SPAM.
NO SPAM – NO SPAM – WE DO NOT POST SPAM. STOP!
Not to be mistaken, I’m not picking on public employees. For the average public employee who earns under $100K, they still tend to make less than their counterparts in the private sector in comparable jobs. However, public employees enjoy more security than private employees. Also, private industry creates wealth where government exists on the wealth of others. Our government’s agencies have become increasingly top heavy, with a virtual sea of administrators all armed with comparable wage summaries from wealthier counties so they can ask for higher pay! When one agency gives their executives a raise, all the others have to follow suit or risk losing their top “talent” to higher paying agencies. But no one ever stops to ask if the taxpayers can actually afford these increases!
Meanwhile, the average working taxpayer in Butte County continues to see the excessive pay and behavior of public administrators who live high on the hog and party like United Nations workers on relief aid, and they are getting mad. When the taxpayers get mad, they start looking for officeholders to hold accountable for the nonsense. They start looking at city councilors spending hundreds of thousands on abstract (ugly) art, or county supervisors who vote to approve county administrator salaries over $20K per month.
At some point, there becomes a problem of too many people in the cart and not enough pulling it. I haven’t even touched on the costs of public pensions and health benefits, costs that are expected to skyrocket in years to come. Once again, I’m not picking on public employees, many of them work very hard and honest for their money and especially those in law enforcement. But there comes a point when we have to measure the value of the job vs. our ability to pay. Instead of one dentist making over $600K, wouldn’t it make more sense to hire six dentists at $100K each? Better yet, issue prisoners toothbrushes and tell them to figure it out! They seem quite capable of studying law while in prison, maybe they could brush up on some medicine while they’re at it.
One final disclaimer: I am a public employee working for the State of California. Legislative employees receive benefits but are not unionized. It seems a lot of legislators who support unions don’t support them in their own offices. As such my employment is at the will of the legislator which is fitting, because legislators are employed by the will of the people. If only more public agencies were at will maybe our state wouldn’t be in its current financial mess.