Posted on 12/28/2010 6:08:23 PM PST by GilGil
In this 21sr century, the new robber barons of wealth are no longer industry leaders as in the 19th and 20th centuries, they are government employees.
There is no better way to say it.
According to City Councilman Sal Diciccio, did you know that while the city imposed a new food tax hitting seniors and the poor the hardest the city of Phoenix employees gave themselves a hefty $20 million raise this year?
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
As Rush said the other day, we have been exploited by government employees, they have taken our hard-earned money in taxes. We should start demanding reparations!
We must enact laws that prohibit the payment of any public sector job to exceed that of a private sector job. In addition, the public pension system must be entirely voluntary with no contributions from our taxes. Pensions, may never be ‘double dipped’ with a maximum annual amount equal or less than it’s equivalent in the private sector.
It is OBSCENE that any public employee as such earns this kind of money.
AZ is a fairly low cost area. 100K is like 200K in DC.
There is no such thing as a low cost salary when the city is $50 million short this year on a $100 million budget.
And when the pyramid collapses it’s always bloody.
No I am saying the area is low cost making the salary all the more ridiculous.
Ping
Simple they take a pay cut or get fired!
What a great deal! If I’m a city employee, I get to vote on raising my own salary. Wish I worked for a private business where I could do that.
Employee costs about 80% of total costs. Cutting things will never achieve budget parity. Cutting people or cutting salaries is the only way to make long term adjustments.
Agreed.
From a quick look:
http://phoenix.gov/budget/finalbudgetrecommendations.pdf
Page 48 (the last page)
Final General Fund
Budget Recommendations
The General Fund revenue deficit of $277.3 million
would have required elimination of 2,800 – 3,000
positions
The Trial Budget deficit of $139.2 million would have
eliminated more than 1,300 positions
The recommended Final Budget deficit of $63.7 million
eliminates about 550 positions
The programs associated with the 750 restored
positions were made possible by the food tax,
employee sacrifices and the Public Safety Restoration Plan
Roughly, those all work out to $100k each. With gold-plated retirement bennies to boot.
Sickening.
I don't agree with most of your post....a pension is a perk offered to employees...if the employee funds it himself, if it a bank savings account. If the employer kicks in 10% and the employee kicks in 10% it is a true benefit to the employee, and a very cheap one at that. Double dipping is also O.K.....if you held two different jobs, ie highway department and department of corrections, spent 15 years at each, why shouldn't you recieve both pensions. You took each job with certain perks included....how about working for the feds and coming out to a job with your state.....which pension should you give up????? I say neither, one has nothing to do with the other!!
Which is why there should be no pensions offered to public employees any more. 1 in 3 Americans have cashed in their pensions. The largest employer used to be small business, and they have no pensions because they cannot afford it. Why should the public sector get fat while the folks who finance it lose theirs? It is fundamentally unfair.
If the employer kicks in 10% and the employee kicks in 10% it is a true benefit to the employee, and a very cheap one at that. Double dipping is also O.K.
No it is not. It is immoral to have multiple pensions that pay a person to do nothing while the rest of the country starves.
....if you held two different jobs, IE highway department and department of corrections, spent 15 years at each, why shouldn't you receive both pensions.
Because, friend, that is an minuscule amount of time to get a pension double dip paid for with tax dollars while people are shoved onto welfare roles in every state in the union. That's why. When 26 thousand people in Louisiana lost their oil company jobs this year, they were told to go on welfare. You think it is fair that these folks lose their homes, see their cars repossessed, and live on welfare while public employees have guaranteed money? Nothing is guaranteed any more. The pension deals, their salaries, and their perks are all on the table. If my private sector job has to be sacrificed for their politics, than your public sector job is fair game too.
You took each job with certain perks included....how about working for the feds and coming out to a job with your state.....which pension should you give up????? I say neither, one has nothing to do with the other!!
If someone takes a job with more perks than the private sector, based on nothing but public money, when the money runs out, everything is on the table. The pensions should be averaged out or cut off, depending the dire straight that state or county is in. This is part of the fight that is going on all across the country right now. There is a very popular video of N.J. Gov. Christie telling a teacher these very things. Everybody has to tighten their belts now.
Pensions were meant to be paid when retirement was reached, not some arbitrary number of years working for the Dept. of Corrections, walking the beat as a cop, being a soldier, a plumber, a bureaucrat, or truck driver, or riding a fork lift.
When the average salary and pension of a city employee is tens of thousands of dollars greater than any equivalent position in the private sector, then you can kiss this economy good bye. States like California are going broke right now. The pension burdens, over sized salaries, and sweet heart deals are killing the state, our cities, and the country.
As governments go broke, public employee unions must share the pain
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