Six-Figure Salaries for Local Government Officials
Local budget deficits and inflated officials' salaries have been raging across the Peninsula Daily News lately. And today their online poll question is:
"Are $100,000-plus annual salaries for government managers and other officials appropriate on the North Olympic Peninsula?"
As of this writing (600 votes cast):
No: 51%
Sometimes: 19%
Seldom: 15.2%
Yes: 11.8%
Don't Know: 3%
"Are $100,000-plus annual salaries for government managers and other officials appropriate on the North Olympic Peninsula?"
As of this writing (600 votes cast):
No: 51%
Sometimes: 19%
Seldom: 15.2%
Yes: 11.8%
Don't Know: 3%
posted by Tom Harper at 7:57 PM
9 Comments:
I have no problem with public servants making a good wage...but the question is, what can we afford to pay them and what do they really need in this small town based on our cost of living??
Maybe the OMH Levey would not have passed if more people knew that a quarter-million dollar annual salary for administrators was the low end of the pay scale. Look into this yourself, it is fact.
Oops, Levy, not Levey.
We should pay them in brightly colored beads and shells.
Public servants should be able to make a good living wage, but when our taxes are paying for anything over $100,000 tops it is a rip off of taxpayers dollars.
There are lots of idiots that will work for peanuts, but if you want talent you have to pay. The scale is appropriate to the job description, not the backwater cesspool, I mean, here, no I mean, locale of the work. Personally I will twiddle my fingers rather than work for less than 125k. I've lived in PA for almost 20 years and never had a lack of work.
If they deserve it, then I have no problem with high-range salaries, public or private sectors.
But that's IF they deserve it. Did Madsen deserve the money he got? How about Kerry Killinger?
I would support a reasonable base salary with performance-based bonuses. We (either as taxpayers for government or customers / shareholders for companies) are paying these people to perform after all, not totally screw up and run off with as much money as they can get. And severance packages should be seriously limited.
If you were a boss, you wouldn't give your accountant a severance if he wipes out all the company records, and you shouldn't give your CEO one if he bankrupts the company, nor should you give one to your elected (or non-elected) officials if they do nothing except sink the government further into the red.
Now, I'm not talking about passing any new laws here. I think either shareholders or customers or taxpayers need to revolt against these practices. We just need to start watching and whining until only those who deserve that much money get that much money.
"...and you shouldn't give your CEO one if he bankrupts the company ..."
Hey now! That's the American Way you're knocking here. What are you, some kind of pinko?
public servants making a good wage...on TOP of the benefits AND the retirement....give me a break. No, it's not alright for anyone in city government to make MORE than three times the average wage of a citizen of that township.
It's robbery. This is not a rich town, and the working poor are struggling to survive. Property taxes are on valuations that are 2x to 3x what the property is really worth. These PROJECTS (i.e. gateway, downtown sewer/sidewalks, bridges) should have been budgeted for over time, and taken on at a pace that we could afford.
Closing the city pool because some 'tards in government don't know how to be fiscally conservative ....we should ban together with our pitchforks and torches and scream bloody murder.
We won't though..isn't Dancing with The Stars or American Idol on tonight......
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