Government Workers Immune from Economic Realities
That workweek was sold as a means to enhance public safety by reducing the fatigue of long hours on the job. But because deputies have so much time off they work additional hours, which are all overtime. Almost all OC deputies now earn over $100,000 a year in pay and more than 100 of them earn more than $150,000 a year. OC firefighters have an even better deal. Their average pay and benefits package is approximately $175,000 a year and their workload is less than punishing. (The local fire union rep asked for a correction after I reported that firefighters are paid for sleeping. They are paid while sleeping, he explained.)
In 2001, the entirely Republican Board of Supervisors voted to retroactively increase pensions for deputies. In fact, the five board members practically tripped over themselves to offer the resolution to do so. They argued that the spike was necessary for recruitment reasons, but then why grant a gift of public funds to those who are about to retire soon by granting the retroactive portion of the benefits? In reality, police and fire unions have exploited the 9/11 tragedy to portray themselves as de facto heroes who always deserve more taxpayer loot. And few politicians can say no out of fear of the political repercussions come election time.
But it’s not just public safety employees who score what amount to multi-million-dollar benefits. Once public safety gets higher pensions, everyone else wants them also. In 2004, the Orange County Board of Supervisors retroactively increased pensions for the remaining categories of government workers, elevating them to a 2.7 at 55 system (2.7 times the number of years worked, available at age 55). The run-of-the-mill OC bureaucrat can now retire with 81 percent of his final year’s pay. These pension spikes — even when they are based on false promises — are binding contracts that cannot be changed short of bankruptcy.
In Orange County — where the 1994 bankruptcy still looms as a significant discussion point during any fiscal debate — the unfunded pension liabilities went up $400 million thanks to the latest pension vote. Last month the board voted to put any pension increases to a county-wide vote. It’s a good idea, but as one supervisor who opposed the last pension spike pointed out, it’s a few years too late. His point: there’s no more room to increase pensions now that the liabilities are so high and public awareness is growing.
Just recently, however, I learned that the city of Fullerton is looking at increasing its government workers’ pensions by 25 percent. It’s the same story everywhere. Government workers live in a different world, oblivious to the difficult economic times all around them. When asked what it is he ultimately wants in negotiations, a union leader famously quipped: “More.” Unfortunately, there are always plenty of politicians to give it to them.
Perhaps is just NYC however I cannot you the number of conversations I have had with government workers who are really angry over illegal immigrants stealing money and benefits they feel belongs to the them, the government worker. Of course in NYC 95% of voters are faithful Democratic Party members.
I am a small biz owner working 70 hrs a week making $100,000.00 a year. Every time I go to a government office of any kind I always see and overstaffed, and underwhelmed bunch of people. In more cases then not, these people are rude and not very helpful – especially if they have to produce anything. When I read this article I want to VOMIT. Any of you out there who actually believe that Democrats (liberals) will make your life better by increasing this type of abuse deserve what is surely comming if you vote for Obama. Mr FAIRNESS himself (*just don’t take away his lifestyle or that of his crony’s.
“But I could make twice the amount I do if I left my government job and went into the private sector.” Sure, you could, but you never do, because we both know that’s really not true, and also, because if you did, they would expect real, quantifiable results from your big dollar salary. You’d probably work long hours as on a project-based timeline.
My wife is currently applying for jobs with the VA, and I cannot even begin to describe the stupidity, laziness, and indifference she has encountered at all levels of the system: nobody knows anything about anything, ever; you couldn’t get a phone call returned if you were dying. I told her she’s better off in the private sector.
I worked for the State of New York briefly in the 1990′s and witnessed such incompetence, over-staffing, pointless busywork, and waste, waste, waste, that I will never forget it; it was a jobs program for retards.
This is why the unions own the democrats. In the public sector, politicians won’t bargain tough against unions that want to enslave the taxpayers; the pols may also have been bribed to fold. In the private sector, management protects the owners’ interests. The unions have hired the democrats (liberal has nothing to do with) to change the equations in the private sector. The more that management can extort from the employer, the higher union dues are.
The author touches on the two key areas that MUST be changed. First, basing a pension on the final year’s salary and then allowing unlimited overtime (trading shifts, etc.) is criminal. Second, when every retiree has a disability pension, something is wrong. Check your California union local to see if it has a disability attorney that it refers members to.
Thousands of cities of all sizes are bloating their payrolls. They are bringing their friends, relatives and “connections” onto the payroll as they realize that it beats most of what the private sector can offer. As time goes on, 10-20 years down the road, local and state taxes will have to go through the roof in order to fund these payouts. For example, I can foresee the day when retirees with $20K fixed incomes (based on small 401ks and SS) will be paying half their income in taxes to pay for the tax-funded, tax advantaged $60K pensions of their local retired bureaucrats.
As a result, many municipalities will go bankrupt and most of these bureaucrats will lose their pensions anyway. Any forward thinking bureaucrat should realize that every additional friend he brings onto the payroll will jeopardize *his* pension down the road.
Gov’t and welfare the only to industries that do not feel any of the economic pain that the rest of us feel.
I had a call from the Loyal Order of the local police dept., they were looking for a donation to help the men/women in uniform. My response was this, ” I have no extra money to donate due to higher prices on oil, gas, and food. However if you can assure me that the men/ women in uniform will not get a raise in salary and benefits this year, I will donate $50.00.” The gentleman hung up the phone.
Sorry state of affairs. Can anyone say ROME.
There’s a conflict of interest with government employees being able to vote.
While I am not advocating any non-criminal citizen be denied the right to vote, there still exists an inherent corruption when people can vote to enrich themselves at the expense of others.
Steven, it isn’t only Orange County. Although I must say, I’ve been here for about four years and I have to tell all that most county services here are very smooth and fairly fast. The mail get here in 1-2 days max. But to get back to the issue, I listened to a government worker on the Governor’s pay reduction plan: back to federal minimum wage until California has a budget. But, when this “worker” was asked what hardships would come his way, he worried about keeping his house..yada..yada..yada. Folks, this guy makes 6 times the Federal minimum wage, and with overtime, make over $120,000. per year, not including his pension and health benefits. If he hasn’t saved for this type of situation, which is common in California, then he is the perfect government worker.
People want to work for the government because you can’t get fired, don’t have to overwork, or over think…the benefits are great and I have never heard of overtime for the DMV, Courts, etc.
This garbage is no differant than where I live in N.Y.
100,000/year in Orange county may get you a two bedroom townhouse in the crappy part of Anaheim or a studio in Irvine if you’re lucky.
Sir as a Federal Government worker I belong to the Thrift savings plan (GOvernment directed 401K) It has dropped significantly in dollar amount and if I try to shelter it it has to go to Government bonds. With the scant options of this plan I do not think I will ever retire. No precious metyals to protect my nest egg only government bonds. If you haven’t noticed the dollar is dropping at rate greater than interest paid on the bonds. We need a stable enviroment for investment of low taxes and less government tampering.
Interesting, I have worked for a city for 20 years and make 50,000. I can retire after having worked 30 years and I will get 50% or my pay rate.
The population of my city has nearly doubled since I started but the number of city workers has increased by 10%, most of that being police.
Looks like I work for the wrong evil government.
I’ve worked for 20 years and make $36k. Most of those “wonderful” pensions aren’t going to be there. Thanks to the mismanagement of the governments that run them (free of the regulations on private pensions), they’re really borderline insolvent.
Here in Houston, TX, thanks to the connivance and support of the Dem mayor (who wants backing for higher office), a strong city union has been formed for the first time and is starting to throw it’s weight around. This is a bad thing for the city, and I, a civil servant, will have none of it.
However, I also resent the attitudes shown by many of the early posters on this thread. What you’re seeing is heavily augmented by the effect of unions in large cities. Go to the agencies of smaller citeis & government, and/or where unions are less prevelent, and you find better employees and less corruption. Sadly, you also find worse salaries. For a graphic example, see this article. And yes, sometimes I’m angry about it all.
One point: Bill Clinton shut down Mare Island Naval Shipyard, which was Vallejo’s major source of employment. The city has been in financial trouble ever since.
Having retired from a Public service agency in Orange County after 30 years of service, I think I can speak with some authority as to how it all came to this point. When I first started my career (firefighter) there were no unions. We had “Benevolent Associations” that represented the work force to their employer. The mindset was pretty much anti-union as it seemed that the union approach was an anathema to “public service”. In those days, the pay scales were not anywhere near those in the public sector, but the job security was better.
Some time passed and then the influence of big unions began their encroachment into that sector of public employment. I don’t think anyone with greater than a 3rd grade education needs an explanation as to which political party controls and is beholding to the unions. Simply refer back to the last presidential election and try to count the times John Kerry appeared on a stage with the IAFF Firefighters and the IOP police officers and the International Associations of Chief’s of Police on the stage with him. And anyone who has ever been a union member also knows that the unions control the members, not the other way round. Don’t know how many time I personally knew of members who voted against the candidate or political position of the union, but it was often.It was one of the few opportunities one had to express their individual wishes. If you are a union member, you are simply on the train in one of the passenger cars and someone with much more power is actually at the controls of the locomotive.
When I started my career there wasn’t even a Democratic party office in Orange County. They simply conceded it to the Republicans. Over time that all changed as the migration from the LA sewer tended South and along with it the Leftist/Liberal socio/political mindset. Now there is no difference between Orange County and Los Angeles other than geographical location.
It is in the interests of the Democratic Party to have as many union members in Public Safety as possible since it is they that believe the government, not “the people” are the ultimate solution to solving all our problems. Isn’t Socialism a wonderful concept? NOT!!
I would have stayed in my career for half the pay and half the benefits. It was a “calling’ in those days, not merely how much one could make at it. Watching it all evolve into the situation and social imbalance that exists today, was like watching an apple rot from within.
Chief 1942 – Thanks for your service and thanks for your reasonable analysis.
Just a thought for Barack, I wonder if his handlers have made him aware of the “windfall profit” that is being had by all these government pension payouts? He could surely attach a windfall profit tax to them and give every American a check for $1000! Socialism, oh socialism, please come wipe my arse!
Two interesting aspects of the California budget problems with regards to public employee unions are ignored in the article. One is the effect the courts have had on the situation. You’d think the courts would be uninvolved in how much a labor union member is paid, and you’d be wrong. About 7-8 years ago, the California Public Employees unions sued the State of California and the municipalities located in it. They claimed that basing pensions on the *base* pay of the retiree was unfair, because many union members get overtime and some get bonuses, which weren’t counted. The state courts agreed, and made their ruling retroactive for several years back. State, county, and city pensions skyrocketed overnight.
Second, the unions are immensely powerful in California politics. Just after Arnold was elected governor, he announced he was going to take on the public employees. He explored several paths for this, and ultimately tried to take on the teachers’ union. One of the paths he explored, but eventually decided not to take, was reforming pensions for firefighters and police officers. The police and firefighters ignored the fact that they’d ultimately been left alone, and participated in the campaign against Schwarzenegger’s reforms, contributing money and even starring in commercials. The public employees ran commercials literally every day for just about a year, and ultimately spent $100 million defending their pension “rights” and were successful. Right now, Schwarzenegger’s in a fight with the Democrat-controlled legislature, which is trying to balance the state’s budget and make sure all of their constituents get all their boodle. The state’s Republicans are strong enough to prevent passage of a budget (the Democrats have tried, twice, to get the state’s Constitution amended so that they can raise taxes with the majority they have, but failed), and they’re currently trying to convince everyone that a tax increase (on the evil rich, of course) is the way to go. No one’s buying it, and Schwarzenegger’s temporary 1% tax increase isn’t very popular either. The only other solution would be a cut in pay, and that of course will never happen.
No one has pointed out, in the political sphere anyway, the conflict of interest that one of the other commenters pointed out: imagine if you got to elect *your* boss, and choose between several people who are campaigning for your vote by promising you better pay, fewer hours, and better working conditions. The company you work for doesn’t have to make a profit, keep customers happy, or actually do anything successfully or competently. The people who decide how much your company gets judge everything on how much money is spent. The more money that’s spent, the more the company cares about the issue, even if the money is completely ineffective. As a result, everyone in your office gets paid much more than they’re worth, pensions go through the roof, and no one has any accountability or responsibility at all. Nice situation, isn’t it?
Chief,God bless you I can’t say it better,,,,,
Bob
Thank you for the privilege of serving my fellow citizens. At some point, if it is even possible, “the people” need to get things back in some semblance of balance. There is no way that public servants should be in a higher social strata than those they serve. Admittedily, they are public servants and not public slaves, but the citizenry at large need to determine just what value they place on public services they want available. And they need to prioritize the importance of those services relative to each other and their value relative to their benefit. Should a firefighter be compensated to a greater degree than say a registered nurse? A police officer higher than say a teacher? A sanitation worker higher than a street maintenance employee?
The way it is right now, the actual compensation of the public service employee has little to do with their role, but is more accurately tied to the political power of their respective union(s).
Mind you I am not anti-union. They certainly have their place in the larger scheme of things and came into being in response to employer power abuses. But we, those who pay the bills, have to make sure there is not too much power on either side of the equation. Unfortunately we tend to depend on those who we elect to represent our wishes, and forget that the “system” is so stacked that little if any true representation of “the people” can ever be successful.
I along with those who saw things from my “old school” perspective, as regards social balance in the public employee sector, got silenced by the power of the organized labor political machine. It was an awesome thing to watch and very disappointing. I know I’m going to gore someone’s oxe here, but I have never seen any single politician or city administation official that could stand up to the power of the AFofL/CIO, Teamsters, IBEW, CWA, NEA, State Teacher’s Association, Service Employee’s International Union, etc. Not sure how we get the genie back in the bottle, but with the current state of affairs I fear we will only see further disconnect between those who serve and those served.
My son works for a city owned hospital. As a city employee, he doesn’t have to pay Social Security taxes. That money is invested in PERA (Public Employees Retirement Association) instead of being dumped into Social Security. PERA works like a 401K in that the money is invested and belongs to the employee. It’s basically a privatized retirement plan, the same kind that Democrats swear we ordinary non-government employees aren’t qualified for.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to deny public employees their PERA. I want everyone to have the opportunity to invest at least some of the money being flushed into Social Security into privately owned and controlled investments.
RE uburoi RE : “[...] My wife is currently applying for jobs with the VA, and I cannot even begin to describe the stupidity, laziness, and indifference she has encountered at all levels of the system: nobody knows anything about anything, ever; you couldn’t get a phone call returned if you were dying. I told her she’s better off in the private sector. [...]”
roi ubu: having, unfortunately, to conduct some business with the Los Angeles VA hospital (not as patient, thanks god!) I was really impressed by the un-accountability and general indifference of most personnel there. This type of jobs go to people who at best are “clockers”, have no interest or sense of doing a job well – of course, they are also devout Democrat voters. For those who follow Los Angeles scandals, the VA hospital rates marginally better than the notorious King Drew hospital (finally, credentials yanked away), another example of gross, tenured entitlement.
Soon after 9/11 my city of Lewiston Maine had a referendum on limiting property taxes. Our city government was wasting enormous amounts of money on so called development projects that many voters felt benefited only well connected developers. The propaganda from local government employed scare tactics including a loss of essential services from police, fire, emergency medical education and road repair. No mention at all of the enormous amounts of non essential pork being being dispensed. At the polls the police were basking in their newly acquired hero super hero status, (supposedly guarding the sacred shrine of democracy). Actually they looked like lazy loiterers sitting on banisters and leaning against walls. I remember exiting the polls and seeing a local news reporter asking an elderly lady if she wouldn’t mind telling them how she voted. Her reply was, “Well my vote is my own, but I can tell you I don’t want to lose my Police Department”. Unfortunatly the scare tactics worked, the City’s Insiders got what they wanted, increases in taxes and business as usual.
No happy ending in sight here.
I agree with virtually all of the above, except for the notion that voting Republican is a good idea.
I despite socialism, public unions, etc. That said, I will not under any circumstance vote for people who believe I have the freedom to control my wallet but NOT my body.
I will NEVER vote for those who want to make abortion illegal, birth control illegal, and the ability of a woman to control her reproductive destiny illegal.
You want to see government spending brought under control? Start with being consistent. Let’s end the power of public unions, but also let’s control public spending by legalizing drugs and continuing to allow women to control their own reproduction.