Comments on: I’ve got $5.4 billion. Do I hear a $6 billion shortfall?

By: Dean

Dean — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 15:26:53 +0000

I am curious how you come up with the idea that school spending is unrestrained. Have you never heard of spending caps? As far as the economy, do you really think it will help the state economy to fire workers and reduce services? What services would you cut?

By: steveegg

steveegg — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:42:03 +0000

Item #1 – You are probably aware that you are better-compensated than the average private-sector employee. If not, allow me to clue you in. The wages may be similar, but the state health care package is far superior. Trust me; I know about that as my dad is a state retiree whose health insurance is completely paid for another roughly 10 years by the taxpayers.

Item #2 – Thanks for proving my point. The money simply isn’t there to support a 4.7% increase in spending.

Now, what did you do when that increase in pay didn’t match the increase in expenses? You cut, didn’t you? Why can’t state government do the same?

By: dty

dty — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:31:06 +0000

This is extremely shoddy commentary in that you throw out numbers and don’t actually publish all of the relevant statistics.

“Compensation for state employees totaled $2.1 billion last year.” So? How can you use this single item to show that there are too many state employees? Is this an increase or a decrease? What is the average compensation per employee? This is not near enough data to make any analysis one way or the other as to the appropriate size of the state workforce. If I told you that Major League Baseball has roughly the same payroll (actually $2.7 billion) would you then imply that state workers get paid the same as professional ball players? Of course not.

“Did any of you non-union/non-government workers get a 4.7% increase in pay over the last 2 years?” Neither will state workers. State workers may have received between 1% and 1.5% increases in pay per year in the past couple of years, if they got any increase at all. Perhaps you haven’t noticed that the cost of virtually everything has risen. State agencies buy gasoline, heat, electricity, food, office supplies, uniforms, asphalt, concrete, steel, etc. Those costs are what drive the need for increases, not worker salaries.