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12/15/2008
Should public employees make sacrifices too?
The Wausau Daily Herald questions the wisdom of public employee wage and benefit increases. It's a good read.
There's a massive disconnect between government employees and the people they serve, and the rift only is widening. Parents one day tell their children they won't be getting as many gifts this year, and the next they read that government employees are getting guaranteed raises.
Its not fair to lay all this at the feet of employees; expenses for utilities and fuel and maintenance and food have risen for school districts and municipalities, the same way they have for families.
But the perception is that government employees come to taxpayers every year with their hands out. And every year, they go away with raises -- and better health care benefits and more job security than anyone in the private sector has.
....Coming weeks and months will challenge union employees in particular and government workers in general even more.
The state is facing a $5.4 billion deficit. It cost the Wausau School District $1 million this year just to keep employee health benefits at the same level as the previous year, and the district expects to start the next budget process a couple of million dollars in the red.
Government's No. 1 expense is people. Those people -- public employees -- have some choices to make.
They can come to taxpayers with their hands out again as contracts are renegotiated in 2009. If they stick with their typical demands, they might get them -- at a cost.
....To keep raises and benefits at the levels employees have come to enjoy, [Weston Administrator] Zuleger said he would have to cut jobs. So would every other municipality and school district.
Alternatively, government employees can do the same thing that the people paying their salaries are doing: Suck it up.
We're not getting pay raises -- certainly not those to which we've become accustomed. We're not getting cost-of-living adjustments. Most of us are paying more toward our health insurance, and maybe seeing our deductibles and co-pays go up.
If government employees don't take a step into the world of those who pay their salaries, they'll be shooting themselves in the foot -- and sending that approval rating even lower. Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
I agree. State and local government employees should at least forgo their raises, perhaps even take a cut.
But more important we must do two things. First, scrub the government departments and eliminate those no longer serving a purpose. Cease hiring and move the displaced employees to other departments.
Secondly, we must look at why the legislature keeps spending money like it's going out of style. It's because the politicians are paid to spend money, but that means reforming the political system. That's a bigger calling.
Jack Lohman (Mon Dec 15 08:15:46 2008)
I disagree. I worked for municipal government for 20 years and have heard this line before. Whenever the economy is poor, the uninformed go after the benefits and stability that public employees chose over higher wages. When the economy is strong they are mocked for working for so little. Find a public employee that receives any kind of bonus....ever.
Diane Blessing (Mon Dec 15 08:48:28 2008)
Many on the FP side of the fence take the position that government employees should be punished for what they do and to do this is to force cuts in pay or eliminate services.
Two scenarios for bloat in my opinion is the growth of corporate bureaucracy in like manner to government. It's actually the same scenario in the private and corporate sector. The bloat occurs in the urge for families to provide secure futures for their children. New agencies (govt) or departments (corporations) are created for nepotism.
These days there is the suggestion to do have a new Grace Commission on government waste in reverse: find out where all the waste is occurring in the privatization of government. Why not?
If it's good enough for bureaucrats it should be good enough for those that said they were going to save the government money by their efficiency. Of course this didn't happen.
Three principles should apply to corporate services and government as well.
Competitive bidding.
Least cost planning.
Full cost accounting.
In the private sector this is usually stood on it's head.
Example:
It's Christmas.
When a Walmart or other big box is built, they design in a parking lot the size of a lake. They are even called 'parking lagoons' in the design business. The huge parking lot is built on the assumption that one day, some time the store will be full of as many people as it can conceivably hold (probably based in fire regulations.)
The store is designed for one day of the year: December 24th. Yes, one day after which the parking lagoon returns for another 364 days to holding a much smaller amount of cars.
Now to everybody's favorite: government employees salaries and benefits taken from the perspective of waste.
There is a lot of 'commuting' by government employees at all levels. Their job may move but they don't. How much of the progressive increase in wages is prompted by the expense
of just getting to where you have to go--often in excess of 50 miles one way? I have no statistics for this. It's anecdotal. Still, what I see is more than enough blame to go around.
At least with the sustainability resolutions going around at county and city levels, there is some attention to the matter. What remains to be seen is if they can look at 'the big picture'. To this end, I just ran across a new term called "managed contraction". It
has been a part of the sustainability notion for some time but the phrase just occurred for me today. It summarizes what is needed for government and corporate America.
Lon Ponschock (Mon Dec 15 12:09:16 2008)
Lon, the practical side of this is that the economy has just fallen apart, forget for a moment who caused it. Should government employees continue untouched? Continue getting the increases and contributions to their sometimes exorbitant retirement plans? Continue spending taxpayer money like it’s going out of style? Continue giving taxpayer-paid favors to the special interests that fund their elections? (You knew I was going to put that in somewhere!)
Are you really ready for angry mobs at the government doorsteps?
No, they are going to have to pay part of the dues. They cannot keep reaping the rewards from the taxpayers who have no choice in the matter. Times have changed.
Now to the heart of the matter: Fix the corrupt political system that caused this mess!!!
Jack Lohman (Mon Dec 15 13:24:15 2008)
Jack,
Well it's the Christmas season so here is the perfect gift:
http://www.mcphee.com/items/11835.html
I try to do all my Christmas shopping at McPhee.
Lon Ponschock (Mon Dec 15 13:48:22 2008)
Great article Jo.
I have made the same point to our city council. I pointed out last yr that all WI employees got .1% raises on average in 2006. AND that average is held up by government employees who got considerably more than average. Have not checked this year, but MY guess is that average wages have been no more in the past 2 yrs than in 2006, and meanwhile, government employee wages have gone up some 6-7%.
I wonder if the fact the family incomes of 4 of the 8 elected officials come in either completely or in large part from the taxpayers has an effect on their inability to percieve this problem, much less do anything about it?
And WOW! A Jack Lohman post I can agree with!!!! Let us hope the future is filled with more.
Ken Van Doren (Tue Dec 16 10:12:34 2008)
Thanks for your comments Ken. I second you on your joy in agreeing with Jack for once! I love it...
Jo (Tue Dec 16 18:27:27 2008)
Now I'm worried. I didn't mean to sound right-wing. I'd better rethink my comment.
Jack Lohman (Thu Dec 18 20:31:34 2008)
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